Australia's Census of Antarctic Marine Life project

Brief description

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2792
See the link below for public details on this project.

Australia's Census of Antarctic Marine Life project.

This project is a part of the international "Census of Antarctic Marine Life" (CAML) which is to be conducted during the International Polar Year. It is a collaborative contribution by Australia and France to understand the biodiversity of the oceans surrounding Antarctica, with particular emphasis on the fishes of the eastern part of the Australian Antarctic Territory. The biodiversity data, when added to that obtained by all other nations participating in the CAML, will serve as a robust reference for future examinations of the health of the Southern Ocean, and assist in the conservation and management of the region.

2007/2008 Season

A. Plankton
1. The impact of climate change on the plankton. The pelagic ecosystem in the Southern Ocean has taken the brunt of human impact in the region and there is evidence that it is already responding to the effects of global climate change. Plankton is particularly sensitive to climate change and change in their biodiversity is expected to have serious ramifications through the rest of the ecosystem including the survival of higher predators. Some species are adapted to cold waters of Antarctic where some are supposedly cosmopolitan. Which will survive global warming? For how long will there be an Antarctic marine ecosystem?
2. Consequences of environmental change driven by past and current exploitation of living resources in the region, e.g. current scale fish and krill fisheries, fishery by-catch species, recovery of whales and seals.
3. "Ecosystem services" - The role of Southern Ocean plankton as source of human food (krill fishery or other) carbon draw down/mediation, bio-climate feedback though dimethyl sulphide production, bioproducts, sensitive indicators of ocean health, and foundation of the Antarctic marine ecosystem - no plankton, no ecosystem.
B. Fish
1. What is the composition of the epipelagic, mesopelagic and benthic ichthyofaunas between the Antarctic Divergence and the coast at Dumont d'Urville?
2. How does the physical and biological structure of the water column, conditions of ice-cover and bottom topography influence the composition and distribution of these ichthyofaunas?
3. What changes in the community structure of the benthic ichthyofauna as a result from the passage of large icebergs?
C. Benthos
1. What are the ecological and historical factors affecting benthic diversity?
2. How will benthic communities respond to change? We do not know how sensitive the Antarctic benthic communities are to global climate change, or to localised environmental change as seen in the Antarctic peninsula area, or to the impacts of increased trawling. We have no benchmark to compare the effects of change, although the effects of iceberg scouring and rate of recovery/re-colonisation will serve as a useful analogy for trawling perturbation.
3. What are the links between Antarctic and other faunas? This includes benthic-pelagic coupling, the benthos as a foraging zone for higher predators, and through the Antarctic Circumpolar Current - connections with other southern continents.
Field sampling for this project was undertaken in the 2007/08 season, commencing in December and finishing in February 2008. Consequently, sample processing has only been underway for one or two months for plankton and pelagic fish samples. The demersal fish and benthic samples have only recently arrived at the National Natural History Museum (MNHN) in Paris ready for distribution to taxonomists and analysts. However, key CEAMARC collaborators who attended the recent post-field season CEAMARC workshop, Calvi April 2008, agreed that the use of three vessels for the field programme, instead of one ship as originally proposed, more than met expectations should sufficiently address all the objectives. Specifically, we have collected a substantial number of samples with sufficient sampling intensity and resolution to set the required benchmark of biodiversity in the survey for the pelagic, mesobathypelagic and benthic environments. This biodiversity benchmark will allow us to:
- Compare changes in biodiversity with future CAML surveys and also with past surveys
- Define legacy sites in the survey area for future CAML surveys and interim annual or biennial monitoring programmes to continuing the effects of climate change
- Which species are most likely to be affected by climate change and those most likely to survive
- Contribute to models looking at long term changes in species composition, ecosystem structure and function, survivorship of key species, effects of global warming, ocean acidification, and impacts on ecosystem service
- Studies of the impact of trawling and iceberg scouring on the benthic and demersal communities
- Compare pelagic, demersal and benthic communities in the survey area with those in the other CAML survey areas around Antarctica
Sufficient samples of plankton, fish and benthos were also collected for genetic and molecular analyses to improve our taxonomic knowledge and address the CAML objective on understanding species radiation.

Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report:
Public summary of the season progress:
This project is a part of the international "Census of Antarctic Marine Life" (CAML) conducted during International Polar Year. It is a collaborative contribution by Australia, France, Japan and Belgium to understand the biodiversity of Antarctic waters, with particular emphasis on plankton, fish and benthos of eastern Antarctica. In 2007/08, three ships surveyed this area with a range of traditional and modern sampling gear. The biodiversity data from this survey will be added to other CAML projects to serve as a robust reference for future examinations of the health of the Southern Ocean, and assist in its conservation and management.

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: The Dates provided in temporal coverage are approximate only, and represent the beginning and end of the 2007 - 2009 Antarctic seasons. The latitudes and longitudes provided in spatial coverage are approximate only.

2007/2008 Season

The original work plan requested 48 days of on-site ship time and included sampling both pelagic and benthic environments from the Aurora Australis. It soon became evident that there was insufficient ship time to adequately support all the major marine science projects in the 2007/08 season, i.e. the SIPEX sea ice survey PN2901 and PN2767, CASO PN2973 and CEAMARC PN2792. Both CASO and CEAMARC required the same sampling period of January and February for optimal success. The Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology was invited to collaborate on CEAMARC with their vessel Umitaka Maru. Umitaka Maru conducted the sampling of plankton and fish in the pelagic and mesopelagic zones over 15 days in the survey area. Aurora Australis conducted the sampling for demersal fish and benthic organisms with 20 days allocated on site. Astrolabe joined the project providing an additional 10 days of plankton sampling to compliment the Umitaka Maru work. Complimentary oceanographic sampling was conducted on all vessels. The combined 45 days proved more effective than the original planned 48 days on one ship, which had a substantial amount of time scheduled for changing gear between benthic and pelagic equipment as well as backtracking over the same ground. Three ships also provided more berths for more scientists and international collaborators and produced a greater number of sites sampled. Spreading the work amongst three ships also allowed the CASO and CEAMARC projects to combine on one voyage providing greater synergy between the two projects.

Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report:
Variations to work plan or objectives:
The original work plan requested 48 days of on-site ship time and included sampling both pelagic and benthic environments from the Aurora Australis. It soon became evident that there was insufficient ship time to adequately support all the major marine science projects in the 2007/08 season, i.e. the SIPEX sea ice survey PN2901 and PN2767, CASO PN2973 and CEAMARC PN2792. Both CASO and CEAMARC required the same sampling period of January and February for optimal success. The Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology was invited to collaborate on CEAMARC with their vessel Umitaka Maru. Umitaka Maru conducted the sampling of plankton and fish in the pelagic and mesopelagic zones over 15 days in the survey area. Aurora Australis conducted the sampling for demersal fish and benthic organisms with 20 days allocated on site. Astrolabe joined the project providing an additional 10 days of plankton sampling to compliment the Umitaka Maru work. Complimentary oceanographic sampling was conducted on all vessels. The combined 45 days proved more effective than the original planned 48 days on one ship, which had a substantial amount of time scheduled for changing gear between benthic and pelagic equipment as well as backtracking over the same ground. Three ships also provided more berths for more scientists and international collaborators and produced a greater number of sites sampled. Spreading the work amongst three ships also allowed the CASO and CEAMARC projects to combine on one voyage providing greater synergy between the two projects.

Field work:
All field work for CEAMARC was completed.
Aurora Australis - 20 on-site ship days during the 42-day V3/CEAMARC CASO Voyage between 139 degrees and 145 degrees E and 67 degrees and 65 degrees 20' S. Sampling was conducted with AAD beam trawl (mounted with either video or still camera), Agassiz beam trawl, box corer the Geosciences Australia remotely operated video and CTD, with occasional samples using an epibenthic sledge. 88 sites were sampled.

Umitaka Maru - 15 on-site ship days between 140 degrees and 145 degrees E and south of 62 degrees S. Sampling was conducted at various fixed depths between the surface and 2,000 m using WP2, Norpac, and salp plankton nets, multinet, RMT1+8 midwater trawl, IYGPT midwater trawl, as well as a video plankton profiler and CTDs. This produced more than 300 plankton/fish net samples at 24 sites. 31 CTD casts were made with phytoplankton and water samples collected at set depths at each site for 264 phytoplankton samples.

L'Astrolabe - 10 on-site ship days between 140 degrees and 145 degrees 40'E and south of 65 degrees 50'S. Sampling was conducted with WP2 and bongo plankton nets, and CTD and bottles for phytoplankton. This produced 36 zooplankton samples and 112 phytoplankton samples at 20 stations.

Laboratory activity/analysis:
All demersal fish and benthic samples for taxonomic analysis were sent directly to the National Natural History Museum (MNHN) in Paris. Samples will be distributed to taxonomic experts within the museum and outwith the museum in Europe. WP2 net samples collected on Umitaka Maru, and the WP2 and bongo net samples, will be analysed at the University of Liege STARESO Marine Station, Corsica. The IYGPT fish samples from Umitaka Maru will be processed at the University of Paris VI - Zoology Station at Villefranche-sur-mer. The remaining plankton and fish samples from Umitaka Maru will be processed at TUMSAT and AAD laboratories. Processing of these samples have started at the AAD and TUMSAT in Tokyo. Whereas the samples being processed in France/Europe have only recently returned to Paris for distribution.

Identifications are required for collation of data by February 2008. Preliminary analysis of data is required by May 2008 for presentation at the CAML Symposium in Genoa Italy, and at the SCAR 10th Biology Symposium in Sapporo, July 2009. All data needs to be collated by December 2009 to meet deadlines for the international Census of Marine Life (CoML).