The dataset contains boundaries of nest areas of surface nesting flying seabirds at numerous breeding sites across Prydz Bay, Antarctica. The sites are at islands in the Rauer Group, the Svenner Islands and two islands (Bluff Island and Gardner Island) off the Vestfold Hills. The boundary data were obtained from aerial photos of slopes where flying seabirds had been previously observed. The aerial photos were taken on 1 December 2017. Marcus Salton and Kim Kliska conducted the aerial photography and delineated the GIS boundaries representing the nesting areas. The database of potential Adelie penguin breeding habitat as described by the metadata record 'Sites of potential habitat for breeding Adelie penguins in East Antarctica' (http://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4088_Adelie_Potential_Habitats) was used to associate flying seabird nest areas to a particular island and to structure how the boundaries are stored. The Adelie penguin breeding site database has a unique identifying code for every island in East Antarctica, and the islands are aggregated into spatial sub-groups and then spatial groups. The file structure in which the boundaries are stored has a combination of ‘island’, ‘sub-group’ and ‘spatial group’ (or region) at the top level (eg VES_SG_10 contains all boundaries in spatial group VES (Vestfold Hills and islands) and sub-group 10). Within each sub-group folder are folders for each island where photos were taken (eg IS_72276 is Gardner Island in the VES_SG_10 group). The data is comprised of: (i) a polygon shapefile for each island on which flying bird nest areas were observed; and (ii) a single polygon shapefile for each of Rauer Group, Svenner Islands and Vestfold Hills in which the polygons in (i) are combined. The polygons in the shapefiles have a Type attribute with values ranging from A to E. A = Nests present B = Searched and no nests present C = Nests or salt stains (the investigators were unable to decide whether what they were seeing was nests or salt stains) D = Snow cover E = Not searched

The dataset contains boundaries of Cape petrel nesting areas at numerous breeding sites on islands off the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. Boundaries of nesting sites were obtained from aligning ground observations and photographs from land or the sea-ice adjacent to the breeding sites onto maps of islands in the region. The observations were made and the photographs taken between 18 and 30 November 2017. Marcus Salton and Kim Kliska made the ground observations, took the photographs and delineated the GIS boundaries representing the nesting areas. The data is a polygon shapefile with each polygon designated Type A or Type B. Type A indicates nests present. Type B indicates this area was searched and no nests were present. Also included are three images showing the Type A polygons and the associated nest counts. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

This data set contains depth sounding data (water depths) for Ellis Fjord, one of the fjords of the Vestfold Hills. The data were collected between 1994 and 1999. See the links in the related links section for copies of maps (PDF and TIFF) of Ellis Fjord soundings, sounding transects and bathymetric contours. Map 15623: Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills - Depth Soundings Map 15624: Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills - Sounding transects Map 15625: Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills - Sounding transects overlaying topography Map 15626: Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills - Transect coordinates and ground control Map 15627: Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills - Bathymetric Contours

This dataset represents Weddell Seal haulout and pupping sites in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. The data were sourced from a dataset compiled by Samantha Lake and described by the metadata record 'Distribution of Weddell seals pupping at the Vestfold Hills'. She used a reporting grid described by the metadata record 'Weddell seal reporting grid of the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica' to show observations made over 24 years (pupping areas) and 28 years (non-breeding areas). The map Samantha produced of pupping areas is linked to the metadata record 'Distribution of Weddell seals pupping at the Vestfold Hills'. Polygons were generated by copying relevant grid rectangles from a digital version of the reporting grid, referring to the maps produced by Samantha; the grid rectangles used were those in which there had been greater than 20 observations (pupping), 17 observations (non-breeding). The data was used in an A3 map of the Vestfold Hills published by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre in October 2001 and which is available from a Related URL below. The data are included in the data available for download from a Related URL below. The data conform to the SCAR Feature Catalogue which includes data quality information. See a Related URL below. Data described by this metadata record has Dataset_id = 155. Each feature has a Qinfo number which, when entered at the 'Search datasets & quality' tab, provides data quality information for the feature.

This GIS dataset is the result of the interpolation of bathymetry from depth measurements made in Long and Tryne Fjords in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica (see Entry: VH_bathy_99). The Topogrid command within the ArcInfo GIS software, version 8.0.2, was used to do the interpolation. Coastline and spot height (heights above sea level) data, extracted from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's Vestfold Hills topographic GIS dataset (see Entry: vest_hills_gis), was also used as input data to optimise the interpolation close to the coastline. See related URLs for a map showing the interpolated bathymetry.

From the referenced paper: The frigid concentration or freezing of seawater is an important natural phenomenon in the polar regions and results in the precipitation of a different sequence of salts - and thus produces brines of different composition - to that formed during isothermal evaporation under temperate conditions (about 20-25 degrees C). Seawater freezing, however, has been studied less extensively than evaporation and somewhat greater uncertainty exists over the exact nature of the compositional pathway followed. Most investigators have shown that the precipitation of mirabilite (Na2SO4 - 10 H2O) or gypsum (CaSO4 - 2 H2O), which both occur at the same seawater concentration factor (SWCF), is the critical difference between frigid and evaporative concentration, respectively, a consequence of the very different temperature dependence of the solubilities of these salts, as well as the effect of sodium chloride on these properties. This difference can be considered to represent a temperature-dependent chemical divide in the closed-basin concentration of seawater because it determines significantly the major ion composition of the brine and the salt mineral assemblage precipitated on further evolution of the system. Recently new insights into seawater freezing have been achieved through improvements in existing chemical equilibrium models. Along with the results of some associated experimental work, this has provided evidence for the formation of gypsum during freezing, contradicting the accepted Ringer-Nelson-Thompson model of frigid concentration firmly established in the 1950's and through subsequent studies, but validating an alternative model proposed by Gitterman two decades later.

This dataset contains the outdated and redundant bathymetric contour data for some of the lakes of the Vestfold Hills. Lake data for Burton Lake, Deep lake and Ellis Fjord.

This data set contains locations of sample sites for Ellis Fjord (1989), Organic Lake (1985) and Deep Lake (1975, 1975) in the Vestfold Hills. Unfortunately little is known as to what samples were collected. It is believed that water samples were taken at all locations, and that bottom sediment samples were taken at least at Deep Lake. When questioned in 2009, the investigating scientist was unable to remember exactly what work was done. The original maps may provide some clues.

A systematic search for banded Antarctic petrels, Southern fulmars, Cape petrels and Skuas was conducted at Hop Island in the Rauer Group during the 2015/16 field season. Areas on Hop Island where banding had taken place previously were searched for banded birds. The data documents two resights that were made and an opportunistic resight on Gardner Island near Davis. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

Aerial photography (Linhof) of penguin colonies was acquired over the Vestfold Hills (Eric Woehler). The penguin colonies were traced, then digitised (John Cox), and saved as DXF-files. Using the ArcView extension 'Register and Transform' (Tom Velthuis), The DXF-files were brought into a GIS and transformed to the appropriate islands.