The salinity of seawater at four sites around Casey was recorded during summer 2003/04 by a salinity probe (TPS Australia, WP-84 Conductivity Meter) attached to experimental mesocosms suspended below the sea ice. Data are salinity in parts per thousand (ppk) automatically logged every 30 minutes over the two two week long runs of the experiment. The period over which data were recorded varies between sites and is fragmentary within these periods at some sites due to power lose to the loggers caused by faulty batteries and adverse weather conditions. Mesocosms were suspended two to three metres below the bottom edge of the sea ice through a 1 metre diameter hole and were periodically raised to the surface for short periods (~1 hour). Mesocosms were deployed at Brown Bay Inner (S66 16.811 E110 32.475), Brown Bay Outer (S66 16.811 E110 32.526), McGrady Cove (S66 16.556 E110 34.392) and O'Brien Bay 1 (S66 18.730 E110 30.810). This experiment was part of the short-term biomonitoring program for the Thala Valley Tip Clean-up at Casey during summer 2003/04. These data were collected as part of ASAC project 2201 (ASAC_2201 - Natural variability and human induced change in Antarctic nearshore marine benthic communities). See also other metadata records by Glenn Johnstone for related information.

This dataset collates data on occupancy of geographic sites by breeding Adelie penguins across east Antarctica between 37 degrees E -160 degrees E from the 1950s to the present day. A separate dataset contains a table and maps of geographic sites in East Antarctica where Adelie penguins could potentially breed. This occupancy dataset comprises a table of breeding sites and a table of occupancy observations. The breeding site table has a list of the geographic sites where breeding Adelie penguins have been observed at least once. The table contains for each breeding site, the names used for each site in the literature, the literature sources for those names, the geographic centroid of the breeding location within the geographic site, and any comments to help interpret the breeding site. The occupancy table contains observations of the presence or absence of breeding Adelie penguins at each breeding site and split-year breeding season obtained from the published primary and secondary literature and from the researchers' unpublished data. These data also include occupancy survey data collected as part of ASAC 2722 - see the related metadata record for more information.

This dataset comprises a table and set of maps of all geographic sites of ice-free land along the East Antarctica coastline between longitudes 37°E and 160°E. Each geographic site comprises a discrete area of ice-free land and includes islands within 100 km of the coast and outcrops of ice free continental rock within 1 km of the coast. The geographic sites were identified in a geographic information system using polygons sourced from the AAT Coastline 2003 dataset produced by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division, and exposed rock polygons sourced from the Antarctic Digital Database version 4.0 produced for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The maps are grouped into sub-regions and regions, with multiple maps in most sub-regions. The maps were designed to be of a scale that could be used in the field to identify sites by their shape and location. This dataset has previously been used in the specific context of potential breeding habitat for Adelie penguins (doi:10.4225/15/5758F4EC91665) but has potential for broader use in a wide range of ecological and environmental studies. 2021-06-30 - an updated copy of the spatial reference system spreadsheet was uploaded. The update was only minor.

Rapid toxicity tests (Kefford et al. 2005) were used to test the sensitivity of a wide range of intertidal and shallow sub-tidal marine invertebrates collected off the northern end of Macquarie Island. The tests were 10 days long, with a water change at 4 days. Resulted in the data set are non-modelled LCx (concentrations lethal to x% of the test populations) values for Copper (Cu) 10 days of exposure. Kefford, B.J., Palmer, C.G., Jooste, S., Warne, M.St.J. and Nugegoda, D. (2005). What is it meant by '95% of species'? An argument for the inclusion of rapid tolerance testing. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 11: 1025-1046. Invertebrates collected from a range of coastal waters off the northern end of Macquarie Island . The columns in the spreadsheet are as follows: Lowest ID = the lowest identification the taxa is ID to (can be species, genus, family, etc.) Group = major taxonomic group the taxa comes from Letter = a convent identifier to split the taxa LC50 discpt = a string description of the10 day LC50 (lethal concentration for 50% of the test population) LC50 point estimate = a point estimate of the 10 day LC50 (lethal concentration for 50% of the test population) Cencor = indicates if the LC50 is right censored (that is greater than the value indicated in the point estimate) Case = a number to identify the record Project Public Summary: Despite pollution concerns in Antarctic and southern oceans, there is little ecotoxicological data and none from the sub-Antarctic. Ecological risk assessments and water quality guidelines should use local data, especially in the polar environment as organisms may respond differently to pollutants. The sub-Antarctic is, however, between Antarctica and the temperate zone and in the absence of local data, it maybe appropriate to use temperate data. This project will assess how the sensitivity to metals of marine invertebrates varies latitudinally and in which region of the Antarctic, if at all, it is appropriate to use temperate data.

The concentration of heavy metals in seawater at four sites around Casey was determined via Diffusive Gradients in Thin films (DGT) loggers attached to experimental mesocosms suspended below the sea ice. Data are the concentration of heavy metals in micrograms per litre (ug/l), equivalent to parts per billion (ppb)/litre Two loggers were attached to each mesocosm (perforated 20 litre food buckets) at each site; one at the top and one at the bottom of each mesocosm. Mesocosms were suspended two to three metres below the bottom edge of the sea ice through a 1 metre diameter hole and were periodically raised to the surface for short periods (~1 hour). This experiment was part of the short-term biomonitoring program for the Thala Valley Tip Clean-up at Casey during summer 2003/04. During Runs 1 and 2 of the experiment mesocosms were deployed at Brown Bay Inner (S66 16.811 E110 32.475), Brown Bay Outer (S66 16.811 E110 32.526), McGrady Cove (S66 16.556 E110 34.392) and O'Brien Bay 1 (S66 18.730 E110 30.810). In Run 3 mesocosm were deployed in open water with no sea ice covering at Brown Bay Inner (S66 16.807 E110 32.556), Brown Bay Outer (S66 16.805 E110 32.607), McGrady Cove (S66 16.520 E110 34.257) and O'Brien Bay (S66 17.607 E110 31.247). These data were collected as part of ASAC project 2201 (ASAC_2201 - Natural variability and human induced change in Antarctic nearshore marine benthic communities). See also other metadata records by Glenn Johnstone for related information.

Geoscience Australia, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) conducted a hydrographic and seafloor characterisation survey in nearshore waters offshore from Davis Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Multibeam data was acquired during January-February 2017 and a high-resolution (2 m) backscatter grid produced for the survey area.

Ecologists are increasingly turning to historical abundance data to understand past changes in animal abundance and more broadly the ecosystems in which animals occur. However, developing reliable ecological or management interpretations from temporal abundance data can be difficult because most population counts are subject to measurement or estimation error. There is now widespread recognition that counts of animal populations are often subject to detection bias. This recognition has led to the development of a general framework for abundance estimation that explicitly accounts for detection bias and its uncertainty, new methods for estimating detection bias, and calls for ecologists to estimate and account for bias and uncertainty when estimating animal abundance. While these methodological developments are now being increasingly accepted and used, there is a wealth of historical population count data in the literature that were collected before these developments. These historical abundance data may, in their original published form, have inherent unrecognised and therefore unaccounted biases and uncertainties that could confound reliable interpretation. Developing approaches to improve interpretation of historical data may therefore allow a more reliable assessment of extremely valuable long-term abundance data. This dataset contains details of over 200 historical estimates of Adelie penguin breeding populations across the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) that have been published in the scientific literature. The details include attributes of the population count (date and year of count, count value, count object, count precision) and the published estimate of the breeding population derived from those attributes, expressed as the number of breeding pairs. In addition, the dataset contains revised population estimates that have been re-constructed using new estimation methods to account for detection bias as described in the associated publication. All population data used in this study were sourced from existing publications.

Geoscience Australia, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) conducted a hydrographic and seafloor characterisation survey in nearshore waters offshore from Davis Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Multibeam bathymetry data was acquired during January-February 2017 and a high-resolution (2 m) bathymetry grid produced for the survey area.

This metadata record will contain the results of bioassays conducted to characterise the response of Antarctic near-shore marine zooplankton to hydrocarbon contaminants in Special Antarctic Blend (SAB) diesel fuels commonly used in Antarctica. The results from one summer season (2010-11) are in this record. This was conducted under the AAS Project 3054: Ecological risks from oil products used in Antarctica: characterising hydrocarbon behaviour and assessing toxicity on sensitive early life stages of Antarctic marine invertebrates. Exposure solutions of fuel were experimentally mixed by slow stir of fuel and seawater in temperature control cabinets at -1 degree C to prepare a mixture of fuel hydrocarbons in filtered seawater (FSW) termed the Water Accommodated Fraction (WAF). WAF was produced by adding fuel to seawater in 5 L or 10 L Pyrex glass bottles using a ratio of 1:24 Fuel : FSW. This mixture was stirred at slow speed with minimal vortex for 18 h on a magnetic stirrer. The mixture was settled for 6 h before the water portion was drawn from beneath the fuel. Ecotoxicological bioassays were conducted at Davis Stations in the 2010/11 summer season using SAB WAF to prepare experimental treatments consisting of WAF dilution series. For each bioassay, treatments consisted of undiluted 100% WAF and dilutions of 10%, 17%, 25% and 50% of WAFs in FSW, to test the toxicity of water accommodated fractions of these three fuels on Antarctic both the zooplankton community and single copepod species. Bioassays were conducted in open vessels (glass jars or beakers) in temperature controlled cabinets. Mortality was observed at endpoints of 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 96 hrs, 7 days, 8 days, 9 days, 10 days, 11days, 12 days, 14 days, 15 days, and 16 days. New WAF solutions were prepared at the 7 day interval to replenish the experimental treatments. Deionised water was added to test solutions as required to maintain test solution volume and salinity. Water quality data was collected at each water change. Samples of test treatments for chemical analysis of hydrocarbon concentration were taken at each water change. Results of these analyses are not included as delayed progress with HC analyses impacted on quality of samples and these data were not used. This dataset consists of Excel spreadsheets. The file name code for zooplankton bioassays is; Project number_Season_Taxa_Test name Eg AAS_3054_10-11_zooplankton_m1 Project number : AAS_3054 Season : 2010/11 season Taxa: Zooplankton Community Test name: M1 =Multi-species test 1 Bioassay spreadsheets contain the results of bioassays for a species or the zooplankton community. Where replicate tests were conducted, each experiment is on a separate worksheet. The worksheet labelled "Test conditions" shows details of Test name, dates, animal collection details, laboratory holding conditions, details of water accommodated fractions (WAF), and bioassay conditions. The worksheet labelled "Counts" has a table for each of the replicates, arranged into a column for each treatment type. These tables show the number or dead individuals which were found and removed at each of the observation days. The worksheet labelled "Totals" has calculations of total number of individuals (of all species) which were found dead at each observation day in each replicate. It also gives the mean and standard deviation for each of the treatments. Further information on the zooplankton community structure in the 6 samples taken across the summer, based on the community in the toxicity tests and trials, is also included in the spreadsheet "AAS_3054_10-11_zooplankton_CommStructure". Sampling locations were near-shore from Davis Station, Vestfold Hills and from O'Gorman Rocks, southwest of Anchorage Island and northwest of Plough Island.

The heavy metal content of whole Paramoera walkeri (Eusiridae, Amphipoda) were measured from specimens collected and deployed in experimental mesocosms around Casey station during the summer of 2003/04. Data are the parts per million (ppm) concentrations of 45 heavy metals measured via acid digestion and ICP-MS analysis. P.walkeri were collected from an intertidal area on the northern side of O'Brien Bay and deployed in mesocosms (perforated sample jars housed within perforated 20 litre food buckets) suspended approximately three metres below the sea ice at four sites; two potentially impacted sites in Brown Bay and two control sites, O'Brien Bay and McGrady Cove. The experiment was run on three occasions during the summer each lasting two weeks. These data were collected as part of ASAC project 2201 (ASAC_2201 - Natural variability and human induced change in Antarctic nearshore marine benthic communities). See also other metadata records by Glenn Johnstone for related information.