Primavera Station, Western Antarctic Peninsula

Researchers and PhD students from our Lab at UNSW and collaborators from the Instituto Antártico Argentino and the Taronga Conservation Society Australia spent February 2009 studying leopard seals off the Western Antarctic Peninsula as part of our involvement in the International Polar Year Program ClicOPEN (Link to CliCOPEN page). 









                                                                                                               Credits: (1-2) M Ciaglia, (3) M Attard

Our program under ClicOPEN focuses on the impact that the changes associated with local warming in the Western Antarctic Peninsula are having on the top order predators in the area, using the leopard and southern elephant seals as models.  With the use of satellite telemetry and stable isotope analysis we are, respectively, following tagged leopard seals as they move with the changing ice conditions of the Austral winter, and identifying the foraging patterns of leopard and elephant seals over several years.  Over the past two/three summers we have collected whiskers for stable isotope analysis and attached satellite trackers to seals.  Now back home in Sydney, we are continuing to monitor the movements of the seals from the past season, far away from the harsh conditions of the Antarctic winter.

The recent collapse of the ice bridge linking Charcot Island to the Antarctic mainland, thought to be holding the Wilkins Ice shelf together, sees more change along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.  So to what extent is this change impacting other facets of the Antarctic ecosystem? Our team will return to Primavera this coming summer.









                                                                                                                                             Credits: M Ciaglia

Jubany Station, King George Island

Jubany Scientific Station is an Argentinean-run base located on King George Island, South Shetland Islands. It is one of several bases in this part of the sub-Antarctic representing operations from multiple countries. The Instituto Antártico Argentino (IAA) is responsible for coordinating several scientific research projects in this region, one of which is investigating the ecology of the Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina). 









                                                                                                                                           Credits: T Nelson

Southern elephant seals colonise this region for breeding throughout September to November. Females form harems, often numbering 60, and males use vocalizations and physical fighting to dominate. During these months ashore, females and males do not feed, although the physical demands of maintaining harems, for males, and birthing and feeding pups, for females, requires sufficient energy. This period may represent a time of change in the health of the animals; and an opportunity to study the relationship of this period with the bacterial flora of their intestinal tract. The microbial gut ecology of the elephant seals is little known and how the proximity of nearby human waste sources may relate to this is of interest.

Throughout this field season rectal swabs have been collected from adult and juvenile seals with the ultimate aim of identifying targeted bacteria using molecular analysis. Samples from the water near to the base were also collected and this study will be directed towards identifying if there exists any similarities between bacteria present in the water and the seals.