This dataset contains the results from surveys of Wandering Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Macquarie Island. The majority of the surveys were conducted at the Caroline Cove colony which contains 59% of the Wandering Albatrosses found on Macquarie Island. Observations were made for 41 consecutive days between 5 December 1975 and 14 January 1976, and for 103 consecutive days between 25 November 1976 and 7 March 1977. Occasional observations were made of birds at other locations on Macquarie Island. Each bird in the colony was banded for identification, sexed and had its plumage scored. The times of arrival and departure, numbers present, interaction and behaviour were observed, and weather conditions were noted irregularly throughout the day. The results are listed in the documentation.

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2179 See the link below for public details on this project. Taken from a progress report of the project written in 1998: 60 terrestrial sediments have been taken from Wilkes and Thala Valley tip, with control sites at Robinsons Ridge and Jacks Donga. 50 marine sediments have been taken from the bay offshore from Thala Valley tip. 116 fresh and marine waters have been taken from the fresh water stream flowing through the Thala Valley tip, the tip/sea interface, and the nearshore marine offshore from Thala Valley tip and control sites. Formal integration of these data into a GIS is underway. These data have not been archived until 2012, hence the only data available were sourced from publications arising from the project.

This data set contains the results from a study of the behaviour of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) at the Vestfold Hills, Prydz Bay, Antarctica. Three satellite transmitters were deployed on tagged female Weddell seals at the Vestfold Hills mid-winter (June) 1999. The transmitters were recovered in December, late in the pupping season. In total, the three transmitters were deployed and active 170 days, 175 days and 180 days. I used the first two classes of data to get fixes with a standard deviation less than 1 km. Most seal holes were more that 1 km apart (see Entry: wed_survey) so at this resolution we can distinguish between haul-out sites. We examine the number and range of locations used by the individual seals. We use all data collectively to look at diurnal and seasonal changes in haul-out bouts. None of the seals were located at sites outside the area of fast ice at the Vestfold Hills, although one seal was sighted on new fast-ice (20 - 40 cm thick). Considering the long bouts in the water, and that we only tracked haul-out locations, the results do not eliminate the possibility that the seals made long trips at sea. The original data are stored by the Australian Antarctic Division in the ARGOS system on the mainframe Alpha. The transmitter numbers are 23453, 7074 and 7075.

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2547 See the link below for public details on this project. Pue (greater than 90% as determined by SDS-PAGE) samples of nitrate reductase have been isolated from the Antarctic bacterium, Shewanella gelidimarina (ACAM 456T; Accession number U85907 (16S rDNA)). The protein is ~90 kDa (similar to nitrate reductase enzymes characterised from alternate bacteria) and stains positive in an in-situ nitrate reduction (native) assay technique. The protein may be N-terminal blocked, although further sequencing experiments are required to confirm this. This work is based upon phenotyped Antarctic bacteria (S. gelidimarina; S.frigidimarina) that was collected during other ASAC projects. (Refer: Psychrophilic Bacteria from Antarctic Sea-ice and Phospholipids of Antarctic sea ice algal communities new sources of PUFA [ASAC_708] and Biodiversity and ecophysiology of Antarctic sea-ice bacteria [ASAC_1012]). The download file contains 4 scientific papers produced from this work - one of these papers also contains a large set of accession numbers for data stored at GenBank.

This dataset will be comprised of measurements taken from trace metal water column samples collected during the SIPEX II Antarctic marine science voyage in 2012. In its current form no sample analysis has been performed. The dataset simply contains the log sheets for the Trace Metals Rosette (TMR) deployments as well as the output files from the TMR software (General Oceanics). Water samples for dissolved trace metal measurements were collected from the surface (15m) down to the 1000m using an autonomous intelligent rosette system (General Oceanics, USA) specially adapted for trace metal work and deployed on a Dyneema rope. The rosette was equipped with 12x10-L Niskin-1010X bottles specially modified for trace metal water sampling. This system has been successfully deployed on the RSV Aurora Australis during voyages au0703 and au0806. Care was taken to avoid any contamination from the ship and the operating personnel. Water samplers were processed aboard under an ISO class 5 trace-metal-clean laminar flow bench in to a trace-metal-clean laboratory container on the ship's trawl deck. All transfer tubes, filtering devices and sample containers were rinsed liberally with sample before final collection. Samples were then drawn through C-Flex tubing (Cole Parmer) and filtered in-line through 0.2 micron pore-size acid-washed capsules (Pall Supor membrane, Acropak 200). Filtered and unfiltered samples were collected in acid-cleaned 125ml Nalgene LDPE bottles for analysis of dissolved trace metals. Samples were also collected for the determination of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon. As well, filtered samples were taken for macro-nutrient analysis in the lab (2 small vials per Niskin, frozen). Regular sampling depths were as follows: 1000m, 750m, 500m, 300m, 200m, 150m, 125m, 100m, 75m, 50m, 30m, 15m. At a subset of the SIPEX II ice stations, filtered samples were also collected for Iron(II) analysis aboard the ship by Christina Schallenberg (in the trace-metal-clean laboratory container), and unfiltered samples were collected for analysis of mercury and methyl-mercury by Caitlin Gionfriddo (caitlingio@gmail.com).

A database containing sounding data around Macquarie Island. Track line data for each data source is included.

This is a parent record for data collected from AAS project 4102. Project 4102 also follows on from ASAC project 2683, "Passive acoustic monitoring of antarctic marine mammals" (see the related metadata record at the provided URL). Public Summary: Half a century ago the Antarctic blue whale was perilously close to extinction. Over 350,000 were killed before the remaining few were fully protected. A decade ago this elusive and poorly understood species was estimated to be less than 5% of its pre-whaling abundance. This multi-national, circumpolar project will develop and apply powerful new techniques to survey these rare whales and gain an insight into their recovery and ecology. The project is the flagship of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership - an International Whaling Commission endorsed collaborative program.

Distribution and abundance of zooplankton, krill and fish were observed on the K-axis transect using deployments of RMT1+8 net. Towing speed of the RMT1+8 were approximately 2 knots. All krill, fish and squid in the catch were sorted, identified to species and counted. The density at each station were determined from the counts per calibrated flow-meter readings attached to the net. Morphometric measures were taken and, for larger taxa. List of files K-Axis Morph combined_for data centre.xlsx: Morphological data for all krill and zooplankton captured in RMT-8 net haul. RMT data entry_v1_for data centre.xlsx: Trawl data. RMT8 filtered volume_for data centre.xlsx: Filtered volume for each haul. Map_all.tif: Map showing all trawl stations. Map_RMTR.tif: Map showing only regular trawl stations. Map_RMTT.tif: Mapn showing only target trawl stations. K-Axis description This dataset includes biological data from “K-Axis voyage, 2016 and “Voyage 3, 2015”. [Data from K-Axis voyage, 2016] Distribution and abundance of zooplankton, krill and fish were observed on the K-axis transect using deployments of RMT1+8 net. Towing speed of the RMT1+8 were approximately 2 knots. All krill, fish and squid in the catch were sorted, identified to species and counted. The density at each station were determined from the counts per calibrated flow-meter readings attached to the net. Morphometric measures were taken and, for larger taxa. -List of files- K-Axis Morph combined_for data centre.xlsx: Morphological data for all krill and zooplankton captured in RMT-8 net haul. Map_all.tif Map_RMTR.tif Map_RMTT.tif RMT data entry_v1_for data centre.xlsx: Trawl data. RMT8 filtered volume_for data centre.xlsx: Filtered volume for each haul. [Data from Voyage 3, 2015] The Australian Antarctic research and resupply vessel, RV Aurora Australis, was directed to undertake an opportunistic marine science survey for 17 days during 21 February to 10 March 2015 using ship time that became available due to unexpectedly favourable ice conditions for Mawson station resupply. The purpose of this opportunistic Marine Science work was to assess: 1. The spatial variability, particularly along the shelf break, of the prey field for penguins, flying seabirds and marine mammals in East Antarctica. 2. The small scale variability of prey in key foraging locations near to land-based colonies of penguins and flying seabirds in East Antarctica. 3. Feasibility and potential of utilising annual station resupply voyages as a cost effective means to undertake monitoring and research to better understand the ecosystem in the region. The survey completed 5 acoustic box surveys including a total of 53 RMT target and routine trawls, 6 demersal trawls, 131 phytoplankton samples from underway sampling, and 214 hourly observations of predators. These activities were successfully supervised remotely. -List of files- emm-15-22.pdf: Prelminary report of the voyage to CCAMLR WG-EMM Figure_V3_all_euphausiids.pdf: Map of Euphausiid abundance distribution. Figure_V3_Clione_antarctica.pdf: Map of Clione antarctica abundance distribution. Figure_V3_crystal_krill.pdf: Map of Euphausia crystallorophias abundance distribution. Figure_V3_frigida.pdf: Map of Euphausia frigida abundance distribution. Figure_V3_larval_fish_abundances.pdf: Map of fish larvae abundance distribution. Figure_V3_superba.pdf: Map of Antarctic krill abundance distribution. Figure_V3_tmacrura.pdf: Map of Thysanoessa macrura abundance distribution. V3_final_for data centre.xlsx: Trawl station data and density data of each taxa caught. Voyage 3 Marine Science Program Final.docx: Voyage report.

Overview The aim of this project was to investigate the genetic connectivity and diversity of Antarctic benthic amphipods over fine (100's of m's), intermediate (10's of km's) and large (1000's of km's) scales, using highly variable molecular markers. To achieve this, we developed seven microsatellite markers specific to the common Antarctic amphipod species Orchomenella franklini. A total of 718 specimens of O. franklini were collected from East Antarctica. Approximately 30 specimens were collected from each site, and sites were spatially hierarchically nested - i.e. sites (separated by 100m) were nested within locations (separated by 1-30km), which were nested within 2 broad regions (separated by approx. 1400km). Each amphipod sample was genotyped for all seven microsatellite loci (although occasionally a locus would not amplify in a given sample). This dataset provides all the resultant genetic data - that is, the size of the two alleles that were amplified for each microsatellite locus, in each of 718 amphipod specimens. Data collection and analysis Please refer to the associated publication (see below) for all relevant methodology. Explanation of worksheet Sample ID- a unique code given to identify each amphipod sample (the code itself has no actual meaning). Region- the broad region of the Antarctic coast from which each sample was collected. The two regions (Casey and Davis station) are separated by approx. 1400km. Location- the locations (within a region) from which each sample was collected. The names of each location reflect actual names registered by the Australian Antarctic Division and therefore their coordinates can be pinpointed on maps held by the Australian Antarctic Division Data Centre. Locations (and corresponding sites) written in italicised typeface are considered polluted (see publication for more information on this classification). Site- the sites sampled within each location. Sites are named simply by a two -letter abbreviation of the location they are from, followed by a lowercase 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd' representing site 1, 2, 3 etc. Microsatellite data - this provides all the microsatellite genetic data generated for each amphipod specimen. Data are presented as the allele sizes (in number of base pairs) recorded for each of the seven microsatellite loci amplified. The seven microsatellite loci are called Orcfra3, Orcfra4, Orcfra5, Orcfra6, Orcfra12, Orcfra13, Orcfra26. As O. franklini is a diploid organism, each microsatellite locus has two allele sizes (hence why there are two columns underneath each locus). A '0' signifies that a particular locus did not amplify successfully in the corresponding organism (after at least two attempts). Samples were collected from Casey station between January 2009 and March 2009, and from Davis station between November 2009 and April 2010. Genetic data was generated and analysed between April 2009 and November 2009, and between May 2010 and April 2011. Genetic data obtained from the common Antarctic amphipod species Orchomenella franklini - Genetic data obtained from the common Antarctic amphipod species Orchomenella franklini. A total of 718 specimens were collected from sites within 20 km of Casey station or Davis station. Collection dates ranged from 2009 to 2010. Each amphipod sample was genotyped for seven microsatellite loci (although occasionally a locus would not amplify in a given sample).

This parameter set was developed to provide a plausible implementation for the ecological model described in Bates, M., S Bengtson Nash, D.W. Hawker, J. Norbury, J.S. Stark and R. A. Cropp. 2015. Construction of a trophically complex near-shore Antarctic food web model using the Conservative Normal framework with structural coexistence. Journal of Marine Systems. 145: 1-14. The ecosystem model used in this paper was designed to have the property of structural coexistence. This means that the functional forms used to describe population interactions in the equations were chosen to ensure that the boundary eigenvalues of every population were all always positive, ensuring that no population in the model can ever become extinct. This property is appropriate for models such as this that are implemented to model typical seasonal variations rather than changes over time. The actual parameter values were determined by searching a parameter space for parameter sets that resulted in a plausible distribution of biomass among the trophic levels. The search was implemented using the Boundary Eigenvalue Nudging - Genetic Algorithm (BENGA) method and was constrained by measured values where these were available. This parameter set is provided as an indicative set that is appropriate for studying the partitioning of Persistent Organic Pollutants in coastal Antarctic ecosystems. It should not be used for predictive population modelling without independent calibration and validation.