Palmer Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) R/V Polar Duke Annual Cruise Data, January 1993

Data was collected during the Austral summer LTER time-series R/V
Polar Duke cruise.

The time-series cruise carried out in three phases. Phase I covered
the standard transect lines 600 and 500. Phase II was composed of a
fast and slow grid for sampling bird foraging area within 50 km of
Palmer. Phase III covered the standard transect lines 400, 300 and
200.

Phase I (8 Jan to 18 Jan - 10 days) was a survey of the Palmer (600)
and Renaud (500) transect lines and included the following standard
measurements: optics, hydrography, microbial loop measurements, plant
pigments, primary production and physiology, acoustic surveys and net
tows for zooplankton, krill and fish (3 nets). There were two,
inshore and offshore, stations for physiology with diel productivity
observations and targeted tows for krill for spawning frequency
experiments. The Palmer finescale grid (stations B-J) were sampled on
Jan 7 and Jan 17.

Phase II (18 Jan to 25 Jan - 8 days) for intensive samplinig of the
Palmer Basin and nearshore marine environments. This area is
hypothesized to be the foraging area important the ecology of South
Polar Skuas and Adelie Penguins breeding in the vicinity of Palmer
Station and our sampling strategy was designed to investigate the
abundance and distribution of birds (and associated biological &
nutrient distributions and physical hydrography) within this foraginig
area. Sampling included a "fast track" with a 10km spacing and a
"slow track" with a 20km spacing within a 50km by 50km grid west south
west of palmer station. Surveys inicluded simultaneous observations
of: seabird census, acoustics (krill), surface chlorophyll,
temperature and salinity. Station observations included: BOPS (20km
grid) or XBT (10km grid) and net tows.

Phase III (25 Jan to 8 Feb - 14 days) surveyed the Adelaide (400),
Watkins (300) Island and Rothera (200) transect lines as for Phase I.
The back side of Biscoe Islands were then surveyed for larval fish (1m
net) hypothesized to be important for the Skuas. Palmer finescale
grid (B-J) were sampled on 26 Jan and 8 Feb so as to maintain
continunity of the Palmer nearshore sampling program.