Thursday 1 July 2010, 11:30 AM (AAD Theatrette)

Science in the Spotlight - 15 min showcase presentation from three science programs

Jonny Stark

Environmental Protection and Change  [Presentation.pdf]

Diving at Davis – The EPIC field season of 2009/10 and sewage treatment project

A dive program was run at Davis as part of the EPIC marine field season, in support of 10 science projects. The main project was an environmental impact assessment of the Davis station sewage outfall, being done as part of a larger project to upgrade sewage treatment at Davis. This is the first comprehensive impact assessment of sewage impacts in Australian Antarctic Territory and ranged from sampling and measurement of sediment and water chemistry, to surveys of biological impacts from microbial to macrofaunal communities. 30 sites around the Davis/Vestfold Hills area were sampled as part of the impact assessment survey, from near the Sorsdal Glacier in the south to Long Fjord in the north. A wide variety of habitats and biological communities were encountered, including the wreck of an old LARC sunk off Davis station. Other projects ranged from climate change related research (ocean acidification and food webs), to population genetics, to contaminant ecotoxicology assessment and guideline development. This talk will give an overview of the season with a focus on the sewage impact assessment.

Alex Fraser

Ice, Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate and ACE CRC  [Presentation.pdf]

Robert A. Massom, Kelvin J. Michael, Petra Heil, Jan L. Lieser, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi.

High-resolution East Antarctic landfast sea-ice extent and variability from 2000-2008

This work presents the first time series of high spatio-temporal resolution (2-km, 20-day) maps of East Antarctic landfast sea ice (10 degrees west to 172 degrees east), as well as a detailed study of the interannual variability of fast ice, from 2000-2008. Fast-ice maps are generated from cloud-free MODIS composite imagery, augmented by AMSR-E ASI sea-ice concentration composite images when necessary. Several key fast-ice-related parameters have been retrieved in this area for the first time, including: The ratio of winter maximum extent to summer minimum (~3.1:1); the timing of maximum (DOY 261-280) and minimum (DOY 61-80) extent; and the shape of the annual cycle (a broad maximum, with a much more pronounced minimum). A small but significant (at the 99%-level) positive trend in fast ice area/extent was identified from the fast-ice extent time series, though the 9-year length of the time series provided is likely too short to provide a true indication of longer term variability. This is compared to the large scale behaviour of the pack ice in this region over this time period. The location of annually-recurring fast-ice features was found to be closely related to the distribution of grounded icebergs, both large (with fast ice often forming on the eastern side due to dynamic advection) and small (with fast ice forming between groups of small, sub-pixel-scale icebergs).

Steve Nicol

Southern Ocean Ecosystems  [Presentation.pdf] 

The Broken End

In 2006 the Aurora undertook one of the largest single-ship ocean surveys of all time – BROKE-West. The first volume of the scientific results has just been published and I will attempt to provide an overview of 20 papers from a 70 day voyage in 20 minutes.