Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1174102

• Metadata Summary

• Problem Reports

• Data Access Policy

• Narrative Documents

• Project Information

• Data Activity or Cruise Information

• Fixed Station Information

• BODC Quality Flags

• SeaDataNet Quality Flags

Metadata Summary

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Quality report for James Clark Ross cruise JR20101221 (JR245, JR246, JR247) XBT data

All casts were screened and M flags applied to cycles where suspect data were identified. The following series/cycles were flagged:

Data Access Policy

Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

You must always use the following attribution statement to acknowledge the source of the information: "Contains data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council."

Narrative Documents

Instrument description

Lockheed Martin Sippican T-5 XBT Probe

The Expendable Bathythermograph system uses a sea water ground. As soon as an electrode within the nose of the expendable probe makes contact with the water, the circuit is complete and temperature or sound velocity data can be telemetered to the ship-board data processing equipment. The T-5 XBT Probe can be used within a maximum depth of 1830 m, with a rated ship speed of 6 knots and has a vertical resolution of 65 cm.

Manufacturer specifications can be found here

Originator's processing document for JR20101221 (JR245, JR246, JR247) XBT data

A total of 26 expendable bathymetry thermographs (XBT) were launched at pre-defined positions, during cruise JR20101221 (JR245, JR246, JR247), whilst the ship was sailing. The speed was reduced from 10 to 7 knots to allow for data collection. The data were transferred to a PC via a USB interface that provided the communication with the XBT launcher.

The data were were obtained with T5 Sippican probes and were not processed or calibrated by the originator.

Project Information

Ecosystems

Introduction

The Ecosystems programme is a BAS core quinquennial research programme, funded by NERC, that started in 2009. It contributes to the NERC's Biodiversity, Climate System and Earth System Science Themes. It addresses the Biodiversity Theme challenges to improve understanding of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem processes, resilience and environmental change; and to enable society to predict and mitigate effects of biodiversity change on processes that sustain life.

This programme will undertake an integrated analyses of the Antarctic ecosystems and aims to develop the understanding of the large-scale operation of Arctic ecosystems and the role of polar ecosystems in the Earth system. A range of experiments (microcosms, incubations and observational studies) will be used to explore how key polar populations respond to change, by examining their flexibility in terms of ecology, physiology, biochemistry and genetics, determining the biological limits of key species under current and future scenarios of temperature, ocean acidification, seasonality and desiccation and comparing the resilience of simple and complex communities. A combination of modelling and technical approaches will allow for the development of means to predict the response key species and populations to environmental change. It will also model how changing key environmental factors, such as food availability, temperature, seasonality, ice cover, among others, can affect species distribution, productivity and biological performance (growth, maturation, reproductive output). Field studies with an integrated approach (e.g. tracking and aerial surveys of predators combined with ship-based surveys of their prey) will be conducted simultaneously and linked to laboratory and long term data studies. Contributing to these studies will be the year-round monitoring of predators at Bird Island, summer sampling of predators at Signy Island, annual sampling of krill and environmental data in a pre-defined area located northeast of South Georgia.

The main objectives are:

• To understand what determines the ability of species to adapt to change through genetic, physiological and ecological processes across a range of marine and terrestrial ecosystems
• To develop quantitative descriptions of the life-cycles of species to determine their likely response to environmental change
• To determine the resilience of polar ecosystems to past and current climate change, in order to predict how they may respond in the future
• To provide data and policy advice, on key species and whole ecosystems, to underpin further development of sustainable fisheries management in the Antarctic and beyond, fulfilling UK obligations under the Antarctic Treaty
• To use regional ecosystem analyses (e.g. of the Scotia Sea and Antarctic Peninsula) to develop models of polar ecosystem dynamics (structure, interactions and biodiversity) which will provide insight into the large-scale operation of bi-polar ecosystems

This programme has links to ICED the EBA programmes, which are part of SCAR and will provide science and policy advice to help shape UK government policy under a number of multinational conservation and management agreements:

• Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM)
• Antarctic Treaty Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP)
• Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine living Resources (CCAMLR)
• Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels
• International Whaling Commission

Data Availability

The data produced during this project are available to the academic community.

Acronyms used in the text:

BAS: British Antarctic Survey

NERC: Natural Environment Research Council

ICED: Integrated Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics

EBA: Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic

SCAR: Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

No Fixed Station Information held for the Series

BODC Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle: