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The Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) is an international scientific program led by Canadian scientists at Laval University collaborating with more than 10 countries including Canada, Japan and USA. This program is carried out to know ecological and biogeochemical processes in sea area of the Mackenzie shelf, continental margin, and Cape Bathurst polynya in Amundsen Gulf. The CASES will carry out an over-wintering cruise" for scientific observations in open polar seas from the beginning of September 2003 to the end of August 2004. The Japanese CASES team focused on specific strategies of over-wintering zooplankton and their possible role in the biogeochemical cycling and transport of biogenic material in those sea areas through the year, primarily because of insufficient information on ecological processes of overwintering zooplankton, such as copepods and microzooplankton.

Temporal and spatial variations of phytoplankton chlorophyll a concentration together with the variations of oceanographic parameters (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient salt concentrations) were studied with an automated data acquisition system, which was newly designed and installed on board the Japanese icebreaker SHIRASE. Variations of chlorophyll a concentration across three oceanic frontal zones (Subtropical Convergence, Subantarctic Front and Polar Front) in the Indian sector of the Antarctic Ocean showed positive and/or negative correlations with the oceanographic parameters. Temporal variations of chlorophyll a concentration at a fixed point in coastal fast ice area in the Ongul Strait showed a negative correlation with nutrient salts.