| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: During 2012 there was insufficient material (POM) caught on filters to measure delta-15-Nitrogen. For those samples only delta-13-carbon could be reported. Purpose Stable isotopes were measured to aid the description of food web linkages between particulate organic matter in the sea ice, the water column and grazers. In particular, the data were used to infer the main feeding locations for krill larvae, juveniles and adults during the time before the phytoplankton bloom began in the spring. Zooplankton were collected during the winter-spring transition during two cruises of the Aurora Australis: SIPEX in 2007 and SIPEX II in 2012. As part of the collections sea ice cores were collected to describe the ice habitat during the period of zooplankton collections. Ice cores were taken with a 20 cm diameter SIPRE corer and sectioned in the field with an ice core. Particulate organic matter (POM) and animals from the zooplankton (water column) and the sea ice cover (meiofauna) were processed for stable isotopes - delta 13 Carbon and delta 15 Nitrogen.
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