Mechanisms of Olfactory Foraging by Antarctic Procellariiform Seabirds

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9615061 Nevitt The Pelagic Ecosystems Studies (PES) program utilizes Framework Science to analyze the operation of the Southern Ocean Marine Ecosystem. Objectives of the program include questions relating to the development of strategies for the management and exploitation of marine resources as part of CCAMLR, and the effect of Climate Change upon the marine ecosystem. The geographical focus for the work is the South Georgia area but the open nature of the ecosystem means that the system must be studied in the context of the operation of the Scotia Sea and the wider Southern Ocean. As part of the proposed five-year research program for the period 1995-2000, the Pelagic Ecosystem Studies Group have designed a coordinated series of research cruises. In addition to those cruises targeted on specific aspects of ecosystem dynamics, the study program includes a yearly repeat mesoscale survey cruise designed specifically to provide information on large-scale, long-term, variability. The repeat survey will focus on three aspects. First, it will establish a physical oceanographic context for the season based on a 740 km transect between the Maurice Ewing Bank and the Willis Islands, to the west of Bird Island. This transect crosses the Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) which is a key area for setting the South Georgia studies in a larger context. Second, it will examine features of community composition both along the transect and in two survey areas along the north coast of South Georgia. Finally, it will collect information on the population structure, distribution and abundance of krill in the same survey areas. Krill is the dominant dietary component for many of the bird and seal species studied at Bird Island, and interannual variation in predator populations is largely related to changes in krill availability around the island. Krill is also the focus of a major commercial fishery and is the key organism in the CCAMLR resource based analyses of the ecosystem.