The Distributional Ecology of Antarctic Seals

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9403672 Siniff A study of the ecology of Antarctic seals will be conducted in conjunction with a physical oceanography cruise that will take place in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas during February and March 1994. The objectives of the oceanography and design of the cruise track offers an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the region's seal populations. A recent international workshop on Antarctic seals has identified these top level predators as potentially important in the carbon flux of the Southern Ocean. This workshop posed questions to address hypotheses regarding the seals' roles in the pack ice ecosystem. This cruise will help collect data on one of these nine important research questions: "What are the causes and scale of variation in the distribution of pack ice seals?" Since the cruise is multidisciplinary in nature, there will be data collected on oceanographic parameters, as well as bird abundance which will make possible analyses to give insight into functional relationships and hence causes of variations in distributional patterns. The seal studies will collect data on densities and distribution, as well as tissue samples for genetic comparisons among regions of the Antarctic. ***