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This is an integrated program which examines the health status of the population of leopard seals in Prydz Bay. Leopard seals are one of the most easily studied top order predators within the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Top order predators are sensitive indicators of change.
This is an integrated program which examines the foraging behaviour of the leopard seal, one of the top order predators within the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Top order predators are sensitive indicators of change.
Heavy metals and sewerage are known to adversely effect marine biological communities. This project investigates the natural variability of trace metals over long time periods and determines the impact on a nearshore benthic algal mat community at Casey as a result of the establishment of a base.
This study aims to develop an acoustic census technique which will improve our current surveys of the antarctic pack ice seals. These seals are an important component of the Antarctic ecosystem. They are long lived mammals, have large populations and must remain within the sea ice zone.
The Antarctic environment has not always been the way it now is and modern research indicates it may be more dynamic than thought until recently. To document this, fossil-bearing sediments from the last 5 million years will be examined using well established techniques.
The project will investigate the ways in which marine macroalgae (seaweeds) in the Antarctic take up inorganic carbon needed for growth.
Weddell seals vocalise underwater extensively during the … breeding season. Both sexes seem to learn a local "dialect". We … will determine if these dialects can be used as natural tags to … identify reproductively isolated groups along the Eastern … Antarctic coastline.
The lakes of the Vestfold Hills range from around 1000 -10,000 years old and from freshwater to hypersaline. They are of marine origin, formed as land rose during ice sheet retreat. Their plankton is dominated by micro-organisms, with few invertebrates.
Algal mats grow on sea floor in most shallow marine environments. They are thought to contribute more than half of the total primary production in many of these areas, making them a critical food source for invertebrates and some fish.
The Gondwana continent existed in the Proterozoic, that is some 500 million years ago, in which Antarctica - Australia - India were once joined as a large landmass. Today the continents of the Southern Hemisphere are widely separated.