Project: Palmer Station Antarctica Long Term Ecological Research site

from the NSF proposal abstract and the Palmer LTER Project site (http://pal.lternet.edu/): The Palmer LTER studies a polar marine biome with research focused on the Antarctic pelagic marine ecosystem, including sea ice habitats, regional oceanography and terrestrial nesting sites of seabird predators. Palmer LTER research themes investigate links between sea ice advance, retreat and extent to carbon and oxygen dynamics, seasonal primary production, zooplankton abundance, distribution and recruitment; foraging, breeding success and survival of apex predators such as Adélie penguins; and large-scale interactions of the atmosphere and ocean. Our research emphasizes regular annual sampling of a grid of hydrographic stations along the west Antarctic Peninsula, oceanographic process studies, moored sediment traps, intensive seasonal studies in seabird colonies, moored and glider-based oceanographic sensors, remote sensing of ocean color, sea surface temperature and sea ice. Observations and experimental results are integrated and synthesized using one- and three-dimensional ocean process models. The Palmer LTER is one of more 26 LTER research sites located throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Tahiti; each focused on a specific ecosystem, that together constitute the LTER Network.

LTER Data: The Palmer LTER data are managed by and available directly from the Palmer project data site URL shown above.  If there are any datasets listed below, they are data sets that were collected at or near the Palmer LTER sampling locations, and funded by NSF OCE as ancillary projects related to the Palmer LTER core research themes.