Trophic Ecology of the Antarctic Nearshore Zone - Stable Isotope datasets

Project Objectives
1) To describe trophic relationships in near shore marine benthic ecosystems of East Antarctica and determine the importance of environmental forces (such as sea ice and primary production) to the structure of food webs and biological interactions in benthic assemblages.

2) To determine how marine benthic food webs in East Antarctica respond to local scale disturbances (such as sewage outfalls and abandoned waste disposal sites) and develop predictive models of the influence of local human activities on trophic relationships.

Collections of organisms from coastal ecosystems around Casey and Davis stations were made between 2006/07 and 2010/11.

项目目标
1）阐明东南极洲近岸海洋底栖生态系统（marine benthic ecosystems）中的营养关系（trophic relationships），明确海冰（sea ice）、初级生产（primary production）等环境驱动力对底栖群落（benthic assemblages）食物网（food webs）结构及生物相互作用的重要性。
2）探明东南极洲海洋底栖食物网对排污口（sewage outfalls）、废弃垃圾处理场（abandoned waste disposal sites）等局地尺度扰动的响应机制，并构建局地人类活动对营养关系影响的预测模型。
2006/07至2010/11年间，研究人员在凯西站与戴维斯站周边的近岸海洋生态系统中完成了生物样本采集工作。