| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: The values provided in temporal and spatial coverage are approximate only. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Difficulties affecting project: Because of logistical delays to the Aurora Australis shipping schedule, ship time for this project was deferred to the 2009/2010 season. Thus we have not done any of the sampling for the project. Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report: Variations to work plan or objectives: The only variation in the work plan was that we were able to collect some non-calcifying planktonic invertebrates for the Australian Museum. These have already been donated to the Museum to contribute to to ongoing assessment and monitoring of biodiversity in the open Southern Ocean, an area where there is still little data. Field work: As noted we collected plankton samples at eight Southern Ocean stations (complete station data below). The main collection tool was the Rectangular Midwater Trawl, using a 150-micron mesh in the RMT-1 frame, as most of the planktonic organisms we were targeting are between 150 microns and 1 mm. Laboratory activity/analysis: Laboratory analysis has not yet commenced, as many of the samples are still being held by Biosecurity Australia in biological quarantine. For consistency of analytical method, we are trying to process all the samples as close to together in time as possible and using the same sets of reagents and processing techniques, in order to reduce any variability introduced by laboratory processing. Metadata record for data from AAS (ASAC) project 3046. Public The overall objective is to characterise the response of Southern Ocean calcareous zooplankton to ocean acidification resulting from anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Simulated increases in anthropogenic CO2 suggest a reduction in the calcification rates of calcareous organisms. A change in the calcification in the Southern Ocean may cause marine ecosystem shifts and in turn alter the capacity for the ocean to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. We plan to take ...
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