Zooplankton were collected with a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 8+1 net) from 37 sampling sites on and near the Southern Kerguelen Plateau. Specimens of the euphausiid Thysanoessa macrura were selected for cohort analysis, based on lengths, and allometry (dry weights and lengths). Lipids were extracted from the animals to provide a lipid content (%) as a function of dry weight. A small number of individuals was examined further to produce profiles of the main fatty acids and fatty alcohols. Instantaneous growth rate experiments (IGR) were conducted onboard to determine growth rates of males, females and juveniles.

The dataset was developed during a cruise on the Umitaka-maru along the 110 E meridian from Fremantle to the ice edge. At five stations, zooplankton were collected and specimens selected for grazing experiments. They were added to 2L bottles, allowed to acclimate over 24 hours then placed in an onboard incubator and allowed to graze on natural phytoplankton assemblages. Water circulation around the incubator kept the temperature to that of seawater at the time of collection. Shade cloth was used to mimic the light conditions at each site. Where possible 4 replicates were run for each species and 4 control bottles were set up with the same phytoplankton assemblage but with no zooplankton added. Initial subsamples were taken and preserved in Lugol's solution. At the end of each experiment, further subsamples were taken and preserved in Lugol's solution. In the IMAS lab the phytoplankton samples were settled into smaller volumes and processed through a Coulter Counter to obtain the number of cells that had been removed by the plankton (initial conc - final conc). From those values, grazing rates of the species could be calculated for each site along the transect.

This data set includes abundance and distribution of sea ice and water column micro-invertebrates. Data was collected form 8 stations over the course of the SIPEX 2 voyage. The data for this project consists of 2 separate collection regimes: 1. Ice cores - a number of ice were taken at stations 1-6, using a 15cm corer, they were sectioned and dissolved in filtered seawater before being fixed in formalin. At Station 6 sufficient biomass was present in the bottom 10cm of some cores to allow microscopic separation of copepod species, which were then frozen for stable isotope analysis (SIA). 2. Lazer optical plankton counter (LOPC) was deployed at stations 2 to 7 either from ice holes (IH) or from the trawl Deck (TD) to depths of 60m or 100m. These deployments were made throughout the day where possible and were accompanied by a 100um plankton net . Each deployment consisted of 2 drops for both the LOPC and the net. Collected plankton were filtered onto 50um mesh and backwashed into vials before being fixed in 5% formalin. All LOPC files .bin will require LOPC program manufactured by ODIM Rolls Royce Nova Scotia. These files are read to format .dat which maybe opened as a .txt file

This dataset is a document describing the Pelagic Tunicates of the Southern Ocean. It lists all the known Southern Ocean species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. The document is available for download as a pdf from the provided URL.

Zooplankton were collected during the winter-spring transition during two cruises of the Aurora Australis: SIPEX in 2007 and SIPEX II in 2012. To determine size and biomass, key species were measured. Measurements of Prosome, Urosome and Total length are provided. The zooplankton were taken from samples collected with umbrella nets, RMT1 net and sea ice cores. They were measured under a Leica M165C steromicroscope using an ocular micrometer. The ocular micrometer was calibrated against a stage micrometer (+/- 0.01 um).

This dataset is a document describing the Decapoda of the Southern Ocean. It lists all the known species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. The document is available for download as a pdf from the provided URL.

Data stored in a Dryad package (doi:10.5061/dryad.c75sj) associated with the publication: Genetic monitoring of open ocean biodiversity: an evaluation of DNA metabarcoding for processing continuous plankton recorder samples Authors: Bruce Deagle , Laurence Clarke , John Kitchener, Andrea Polanowski, Andrew Davidson. Molecular Ecology Resources. The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) has been used to characterise zooplankton biodiversity along transects covering hundreds of thousands of kilometres in the Southern Ocean CPR survey. Plankton collected by the CPR is currently identified using is classical taxonomy (i.e. using a microscope and morphological features). We investigated the potential to use DNA metabarcoding (species identification from DNA mixtures using high-throughput DNA sequencing) as a tool for rapid collection of taxonomic data from CPR samples. In our study, zooplankton were collected on CPR silks along two transects between Tasmania and Macquarie Island. Plankton were identified using standard microscopic methods and by sequencing a mitochondrial COI marker. Data provided in the Dryad Data entry include the DNA sequences (Illumina MiSeq) recovered, the morphological identifications and the R-code used to analyse these data. The results from our study show that a DNA-based approach increased the number of metazoan species identified and provided high resolution taxonomy of groups problematic in conventional surveys (e.g. larval echinoderms and hydrozoans). Metabarcoding also generally produced more detections than microscopy, but this sensitivity may make cross-contamination during sampling a problem. In some samples, the prevalence of DNA from larger plankton (such as krill) masked the presence of smaller species. Overall, the genetic data represents a substantial shift in perspective, making direct integration into current long-term time-series challenging. We discuss a number of hurdles that exist for progressing this powerful DNA metabarcoding approach from the current snapshot studies to the requirements of a long-term monitoring program.

This dataset contains scanned copies of the RMT and bottom trawl logs from Voyage 6 1990-91 (AAMBER2) of the Aurora Australis. This was primarily a marine science voyage. Surveys of krill, other zooplankton and pelagic fish were taken in Prydz Bay, Antarctica between January and February 1991. 177 midwater trawls were successfully completed at 59 stations. Midwater fish were sampled using an International Young Gadoid Pelagic Trawl (IYGPT). At each station, hauls were taken at depths of 20-30m, approximately halfway down the water column, and 20-30m above the bottom. At six stations, the lowest sample was duplicated using a light fitted to the net. Where samples were made off the shelf, standard depths of 20-30m, 400m, and 800m were fished. All hauls were of 30 minutes fishing time. Bottom trawls were made using a 35m headline length otter trawl fitted with 40cm diameter bobbin gear. A 2" mesh cod end liner was used to retain small fish. On both nets, a Simrad trawl surveillance sonar was used.

Zooplankton were collected during the winter-spring transition during two cruises of the Aurora Australis: SIPEX in 2007 and SIPEX II in 2012. The umbrella net was 2 metres long, 28 cm2 mouth area and mesh size of 100 um. The net was lowered through holes drilled through the pack ice and lowered to 100 m. It was pulled slowly by hand to the surface, closed and brought back through the ice hole. The contents were preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde and examined under a Leica M12 in the laboratory. Species were identified to the lowest taxon possible.

This dataset contains data files, processing templates and documentation relating to the BROKE-West multifrequency echosounder (acoustic) survey carried out from the RSV Aurora Australis in the austral summer of 2005/06 (ASAC project 2655). The primary aim of the acoustic survey was to describe the distribution and abundance of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in CCAMLR Division 58.4.2. However, these data are also relevant for studies of other sound-scattering targets detected by the echosounder system, for example other pelagic taxa or the seafloor. The dataset is a collection of *.csv data files, *.ev processing files and *.pdf documentation files, organised into 4 categories: 1. Acoustic survey: data files relating to the transects undertaken for the acoustic survey 2. Acoustic data processing: metadata files, processing templates and documentation relating to the collection and processing of the acoustic data 3. Acoustic results: results arising from the processing of the raw data. The raw data are described in a separate metadata record - "AAD Hydroacoustics hard disks - data collected from Southern Ocean cruises..." 4. Ancillary data: additional non-acoustic data used during the processing of the acoustic data The file "data_fields.pdf" lists and describes the fields in each of the *.csv data files. The file "processing_methods.pdf" provides a synopsis of the methods by which the raw acoustic data were collected and processed. The BROKE-West survey was conducted on voyage 3 of the Aurora Australis during the 2005-3006 season. It was intended to be a comprehensive biological and oceanographic survey of the region between 30 degrees and 80 degrees east.