Winter Zooplankton pilot study - Mawson area

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 1117
See the link below for public details on this project.
---- Public Summary from Project ----
The aim of this project is to determine how feasible it is to regularly sample the pelagic under-ice community during winter at a coastal site near Mawson. Very few attempts have been made to sample the water column under the ice during the winter months and the processes that occur during this period remain critical gaps in our knowledge of the Antarctic marine ecosystem.

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The pelagic community under the Mawson sea ice was sampled during the winter of 2001 using 'light trap' sampling devices. The 'light traps' were tested at various depths in a range of configurations to determine whether they were an appropriate instrument to sample the winter pelagic community under the ice.

Fourteen successful deployments of the light traps were made on seven separate occasions from 12 June to 12 September 2001. The light traps were deployed at three different depths - the underside of the sea ice, mid water, and just above the sea floor. Two different light sources were used to attract the animals, namely fluorescent tubes and cyalume sticks. Two different configurations of the traps were tested to retain the animals inside the trap - one with plastic flaps to trap the animals, the other with no flaps, allowing the animals to move freely inside the trap. The light traps were deployed and retrieved during darkness to avoid any influence of ambient light.

The objectives of the project were met and it is assessed that the pelagic community in winter can be effectively sampled using this methodology. A result of particular interest is the success of the traps in capturing Pleuragramma antarctica, a species which has proven difficult to capture using traditional sampling methods such as nets.

ASAC项目1117数据集元数据记录
请参阅下方链接获取该项目的公开详情。
——项目公开摘要——
本项目旨在探究在莫森站附近沿岸海域冬季定期采样冰下浮游群落的可行性。目前针对冬季冰下水体的采样尝试极少，该时段发生的生态过程仍是南极海洋生态系统研究中亟待填补的关键空白。

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2001年冬季，研究团队采用光陷阱（light trap）采样装置，对莫森海冰下的浮游群落开展了采样工作。研究人员在不同水深、采用多种配置方案对该光陷阱进行测试，以验证其是否适用于冰下冬季浮游群落的采样。

2001年6月12日至9月12日期间，研究团队共开展7次独立作业，成功完成14次光陷阱布放。光陷阱分别布放在三个不同水深：海冰下表面、水体中层以及紧邻海床上方。研究采用两种不同光源吸引浮游生物：荧光灯管与夜光棒（cyalume sticks）。研究还测试了两种不同的陷阱滞留结构：一种带有塑料挡片以困住浮游生物，另一种无挡片，允许浮游生物在陷阱内自由活动。所有光陷阱的布放与回收均在夜间进行，以避免环境光的干扰。

本项目已达成预设目标，经评估，该采样方法可有效获取冬季冰下浮游群落样本。尤为值得关注的是，该光陷阱成功捕获了南极银汉鱼（Pleuragramma antarctica）——这类物种此前难以通过网具等传统采样方式获取。