The Australian Antarctic Data Centre is a web-accessible repository of freely-available
Antarctic scientific data. The Data Centre seeks to increase the value and utility
of its
holdings through data mining analyses and research. We present and discuss analyses
of an extensive spatial/temporal database of at-sea observations of seabirds
and related physical environmental parameters. Mixture-model based clustering
identified two communities of seabirds in the Prydz Bay region of East Antarctica,
and characterised their spatial and temporal distributions. The relationships
between observations of three seabird species and environmental parameters were
explored using predictive logistic models. The parameters of these models were
estimated using data from the Prydz Bay region. The generality of the models
was tested by applying them to data from a different region (that adjacent to
Australia’s Casey station). This approach identified regional differences
in the at-sea observations of seabird species. The results of these analyses
complement those of at-sea studies of seabirds elsewhere around the Antarctic.
They also provide insights into possible data errors that were not readily apparent
from direct examination of the data. These analyses enhanced ecological understanding,
provided feedback on survey strategy, and highlighted the utility of the repository.