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  • Depth to sea floor and sea ice thickness data measured at various locations around the Vestfold Hills, Davis station, East Antarctica, during the 2018-19 austral summer. Depth to sea floor and sea ice thickness measures in meters obtained using a weighted tape measure deployed through a hole (5 cm) drilled in the sea ice. Sea ice thickness was determined by snagging the weight on the underside edge of the ice hole as the tape measure was retreived.

  • Zooplankton were collected during the winter-spring transition during two cruises of the Aurora Australis: SIPEX in 2007 and SIPEX II in 2012. As part of the collections sea ice cores were collected to describe the ice habitat during the period of zooplankton collections. Ice cores were taken with a 20 cm diameter SIPRE corer and sectioned in the field with an ice core. Temperature was measured in the section using a spike thermometer and slivers of each section were melted without filtered water to record salinity. The remainders of each section were melted at 4oC in filtered seawater and the melted water was used to measure chlorophyll a concentration, and meiofauna species and abundance. Meiofauna were counted and identified using a Leica M12 microscope: to species in most cases and down to stage during 2012.

  • This data set is the logged, annualised summer sea salt (December to March, DJFM) concentrations from the Law Dome ice core chemistry record, spanning 1000-2009 AD (dates apply to the year of JFM, so e.g. 1980 is an average of Dec 1979 and Jan-Mar 1980). The data are compiled from numerous ice cores drilled at the Law Dome site sequentially since 1987, and chronologically dated using volcanic horizons and annual layer counting. The cores used are (chronologically from oldest data to newest): DSS Main DSS97 DSS0102 DSS0809 DSS0910 The dataset has 37 'missing' summer values in instances where insufficient ice core material was available. These missing summers have been filled using linear interpolation. This work forms part of Australian Antarctic Science (AAS) project no. 757. The record was published as an ENSO and eastern Australian rainfall proxy record in: Vance, T. R., T. D. van Ommen, M. A. J. Curran, C. T. Plummer, A. D. Moy, (2012): A millennial proxy record of ENSO and eastern Australian rainfall from the Law Dome ice core, East Antarctica. Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00003.1

  • During the Antarctic Division BIOMASS Experiment III (ADBEX III) cruise of the Nella Dan (Oct - Dec 1985), sea ice cores were drilled at 13 stations. Stratigraphy of the cores recorded, along with borehole temperatures. In addition to visual notes, photographs for each of the cores were taken - the negatives of these pictures are archived with the notes made. Physical records are archived at the Australian Antarctic Division.

  • Note - these data should be used with caution. The chief investigator for the dataset has indicated that a better quality dataset exists, but the AADC have been unable to attain it for archive. In addition to snow pits dug by other groups, several snow pits were dug at IMB/AWS deployment sites and at snow mast sites. Dates, locations, personnel, and purpose are listed in Table 1. Many of the data files include the raw weight measurements including the mass of the snow density shovel along with the snow. This needs to be corrected using the snow density shovel weight appropriate to each pit. Table 1 Snow Pits (comma separated) Date,Location,Personnel,Comments 2012-10-04,Floe 3 radiometer site,Katie,Full-depth snow density profile for evaluation of SMP data 2012-10-08,Floe 4 drift mast,Katie,Full-depth snow density profile for evaluation of SMP data 2012-10-14,Floe 6 buoy 1,Katie,Full-depth snow density profile for evaluation of SAMS WHOI-3 data 2012-10-14,Floe 6 buoy 2,Katie,Full-depth snow density profile for evaluation of SAMS WHOI-5 data 2012-10-20,Floe 7 drift mast,Ted,Snow pit to characterise snow at ice station 7 drift mast site 2012-10-23,Floe 7 drift mast,Katie,Full-depth snow density profile for evaluation of SMP data 2012-10-28,Helicopter buoy install,Petra,Snow pit for evaluation of SAMS- WHOI-4 buoy data 2012-10-29,Helicopter buoy install,Petra,Snow pit for evaluation of SAMS- TASI2-1 buoy data 2012-11-01,Floe 8,Ted,Snow pit for evaluation of WHOI-2 buoy data 2012-11-04,Floe 6 buoy re-install,Ted,Snow pit for evaluation of WHOI-6 buoy data

  • This file comprises five high-resolution records of 10Be concentration in snow from Law Dome, East Antarctica: DSS0102-pit, DSS0506-pit, DSS0506-core, DSS0809-core and DSS0910-core. A single composite series is constructed from three of these records (DSS0506-core, DSS0809-core and DSS0102-pit), providing a monthly-resolved time-series of 10Be concentrations at DSS over the decade spanning 1999 to 2009. This work was done as part of AAS 2384, AAS 3064 and AAS 1172. A data update was provided by Jason Anderson on 2012-12-17.

  • AM01 borehole drilled January 2002. Data collected in series of files over a period of 2 days during production of borehole. Consult Readme file for detail of data files and formats.

  • During voyage 1 of 1985, sixteen ice cores were drilled from sea ice. Details from those cores include the position they were drilled, length of the core, percentage of the core that was frazil ice, and comments on the state of the core, or observations of the ice make-up. Physical records are archived at the Australian Antarctic Division.

  • Overview of the project and objectives: Sea-ice phytoplankton is significantly enriched in 13C (delta 13C-POC) compared to pelagic phytoplankton in adjacent open waters because of carbon limitation in the brine pockets and due to physiological properties such as the presence of Carbon Concentrating Mechanisms (CCM) and/or the uptake of bicarbonate (HCO3-). Melting of sea-ice with release of sea-ice phytoplankton occurs during the growth season, so these isotopically heavy particles, if sinking out of the surface waters, can be expected to be found deeper in the water column. One hypothesis is that the natural carbon isotopic signal of brassicasterol (phytosterol, mainly diatom indicator) in the south Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), a water mass which is influenced by the Seasonal Ice Zone (SIZ), is enriched compared to northern deep waters signal due to an enhanced contribution of sea-ice diatoms. The objective of this dataset acquisition is to gain information on the delta 13C signal of brassicasterol in sea-ice diatoms and further estimate the contribution of sea-ice algae release in the Southern Ocean biological pump. In the course of the expedition, a second choice has been done to look at the presence of particulate barium in the sea-ice. In the open ocean, presence of particulate barium in the mesopelagic layer is an indicator of remineralisation process. The main idea is that marine snow composed of detritical organic matter (aggregates, faecal pellets, etc.) provides micro-environment favorable for precipitation of excess Barium or Baxs (total particulate Ba minus the lithogenic part; mainly constituted of barite crystals, BaSO4): is there such Baxs components in the sea-ice? Methodology and sampling strategy: Sampling strategy follows ice stations deployment via Bio ice-core type. Most of the time we worked close to / directly on the Trace Metal site following precautions concerning TM sampling (clean suits etc.). When we worked close to the TM site, precautions were not such important because we don't need the same drastic precautions for our own sampling. We work together because we want to propose a set of data which helps to characterize the system of functioning in close relation with TM availability (for that, sampling location have to be as close as possible). Ice melted from ice-core sections (see attached files for more details) is filtered on precombusted GF-F filters (0.7 microns porosity) and filters are stored at -20 degrees C. For particulate Barium sampling, same protocol but filtration on PC filters 0.4 microns, dry over night and store at ambient temperature. At home laboratory (VUB, Brussels, Belgium), sterols samples are analysed via Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) and Gas Chromatography-combustion column-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (GC-c-IRMS) after chemical treatment. Barium sample are analysed via Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES).

  • Overview of the project and objectives: To investigate whether nitrate uptake and processes other than nitrate uptake by phytoplankton are significant and show spatial variability possibly induced by varying availability of Fe and other parameters in the region, seawater was collected from CTD (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) and TMR (Trace Metals Rosette) casts jointly with the nutrient sampling, as well as well as sea-ice collected from Bio ice-core types on Ice Station, for analysis of nitrate d15N, d18O isotopic composition. Results have been interpreted in the light of prevailing nitrate-nutrient concentrations (Belgian team) and N-uptake regimes for the Ice Stations (new vs. regenerated production and nitrification; see Silicon, Carbon and Nitrogen in-situ incubation Metadata file). Methodology and sampling strategy: Samples for isotopic composition of nitrate were collected from the CTD rosette, TMR and Bio ice-core jointly with the nutrient sampling. Sea-ice sampling: sampling strategy follows ice stations deployment via Bio ice-core type. Most of the time we worked close to / directly on the Trace Metal site following precautions concerning TM sampling (clean suits etc.). When we worked close to the TM site, precautions were not such important because we don't need the same drastic precautions for our own sampling. We work together because we want to propose a set of data which helps to characterize the system of functioning in close relation with TM availability (for that, sampling location have to be as close as possible). All samples were filtered on 0.2 microns acrodiscs and kept at -20 degrees C till analysis in the home-based laboratory. We applied the denitrifier method elaborated by Sigman et al. (2001) and Casciotti et al. (2002). This method is based on the isotopic analysis of delta 15N and delta 18O of nitrous oxide (N2O) generated from nitrate by denitrifying bacteria lacking N2O-reductase activity. As a prerequisite the nitrate concentrations need to be known (nutrients analysis in the home lab.) as this sets sample amount provided to the denitrifier community. Briefly, sample nitrate is reduced by a strain of denitrifying bacteria (Pseudomonas aureofaciens) which transform nitrate into N2O, but lack the enzyme to produce N2. N2O is then analysed for N, O isotopic composition by IRMS (Delta V, Thermo) after elimination of CO2, volatile organic carbon and further cryogenic focusing of N2O (Mangion, 2011). Casciotti K.L., D.M.Sigman, M.G. Hastings, J.K. Bohlke and A. Hilkert, 2002. Measurement of the oxygen isotopic composition of nitrate in seawater and freshwater using the denitrifier method, Analytical Chemistry, 74 (19): 4905-4912. Mangion P., 2011. Biogeochemical consequences of sewage discharge on mangrove environments in East Africa, PhD Thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 208 pp. Sigman D.M., Casciotti K.L., Andreani M., Barford C., Galanter M. and J.K. Bohlke, 2001. A bacterial method for the nitrogen isotopic analysis of nitrate in seawater and freshwater, Analytical Chemistry, 73: 4145-4153.