Under water video footage from Weddell seal NEU2022_wed_a_m_01_1 taken by seal mounted cameras during expedition ANT-Land_2022_SEAEIS (NEU2022)@en

SEAls and cryobenthic communities at the Ekström Ice Shelf (SEAEIS) applies biologging technologies for studying the foraging ecology of Weddell seals with a direct link to the investigation of cryobenthic invertebrate communities beneath the Ekström Ice Shelf at Atka Bay. Incidences of cryobenthic communities beneath ice shelves are rare and recent discoveries. Combined seal- and ROV-borne imagery and novel sampling technologies led to the discovery of a cryobenthic isopod community (Antarcturus cf. spinacoronatus Schultz 1978), being attached head-down to the underside of floating shelf ice at Drescher Inlet (Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf) at depths of around 80-150 m (Watanabe et al. 2006; Bornemann et al. 2016). These \"hanging gardens\" may represent a food horizon where seals could benefit from a local hotspot of high biologic activity. The presence of isopod aggregations explained a multimodal distribution of the seals' dive depths known from earlier investigations at Drescher Inlet, and could probably also be indicative for increased abundances of seals in Areas of Ecological Significance (AES) at the interface between shelf and sea ice. However, the question whether the aforementioned findings are representative for the far-ranging high Antarctic ice shelves or even unique remains open, and factors contributing to AES and their stability over time are largely unexplored. Therefore, we proposed a synoptic field study at Atka Bay (Neumayer Station III), where earlier deployments of satellite-linked data loggers also showed a mode in the distribution of bottom times spent at water depths corresponding to the underside of the floating shelf ice, thus supporting the hypothesis of ice shelf associated foraging.埃克斯特龙冰架下的海豹与冰冻底栖生物群落（SEAEIS）项目采用生物记录技术（biologging）研究威德尔海豹的觅食生态学，同时直接关联阿特卡湾埃克斯特龙冰架下方的冰冻底栖无脊椎动物群落调查。冰架下方存在冰冻底栖生物群落的案例极为罕见，属于近年新发现。结合搭载于海豹与遥控无人潜水器（ROV）的影像数据及新型采样技术，研究人员在德舍尔水道（里瑟尔-拉森冰架）水深约80-150米的浮冰下方发现了一处冰冻底栖等足类群落（*Antarcturus* cf. *spinacoronatus* Schultz, 1978），该群落以头部朝下的方式附着在浮冰底面（Watanabe等，2006；Bornemann等，2016）。这类"悬挂花园"可视为一处食物层位，海豹可在此利用局部高生物活性热点区域获取食物资源。等足类集群的存在可解释德舍尔水道早期研究中观测到的海豹潜水深度多峰分布特征，同时也可能预示着陆架与海冰交界带的生态重要区域（AES）内海豹种群丰度有所提升。然而，上述发现是否能代表广布的南极高纬度冰架，甚至是否属于特有现象，这一问题尚未得到解答；而影响生态重要区域形成及其长期稳定性的因素，目前也基本未被探索。因此，本研究提出在阿特卡湾（诺伊迈尔三号站）开展同步野外调查：此前在该区域部署的卫星数据记录器也曾观测到，海豹在对应浮冰底面的水深区域停留的海底时间呈现出分布峰值，这一结果进一步支撑了"海豹以冰架为关联对象进行觅食"的假说。