Summary
Abstract Current ecological theory and practice, in parallel with the changing emphasis in international conservation and management organisations towards an ecosystem approach, require us to: consider management and research at a range of scales from the global to the fine scale; and also to recognise the importance of linkages between fine-scale processes within one system (i.e. predator prey interactions and temporal and spatial distribution of baleen whales in the Southern Ocean) with linked processes and cascade effects from other ecosystems which have a significant and profound effect on processes and interactions at all scales (i.e. South Pacific and other southern hemisphere ocean basin processes linked to Southern Ocean). The SOCEP programme seeks to develop a research approach that can pose and answer meaningful questions about important ecological processes. This will allow us to eventually make strong inferences by explaining observed patterns as generated by those processes. Current evidence suggests that linked ecosystem processes operate together in the southern oceans at a range of spatial and temporal scales. At present we can generate relatively simple hypotheses based on analyses of patterns and observations recorded over four years voyages. An analysis of some of the data collected so far is presented and discussed in the light of current ecological thinking and the direction of future research.