Marine sediments often represent an important reservoir of carbonate minerals that will react rapidly to changing seawater chemistry as a result of ocean acidification. Ocean acidification (the reaction of CO2 with seawater) lowers the saturation state with respect to carbonate minerals and may lead to dissolution of these minerals if undersaturation occurs. There are three main carbonate minerals found in marine sediments: 1. aragonite 2. calcite (also referred to as low-magnesium calcite, containing less than 4mol% MgCO3) 3. high-magnesium calcite (greater than 4 mol% MgCO3) Due to the different structure of these minerals, they have different solubilities with high-Mg calcite the most soluble, followed by aragonite and then calcite. As seawater CO2 increases and the saturation state with respect to carbonate minerals decreases, high-Mg calcite will be the first mineral subject to undersaturation and dissolution. By measuring the carbonate mineral composition of sediments, we can determine which areas are most at risk from dissolution. This information forms an important baseline with which we can assess future climate change. The effect of ocean acidification on carbonates in marine sediments will occur around the world, but due to the lower seawater temperatures in Antarctica, solubility is much lower so the impacts will occur here first. This dataset is a compilation of carbonate mineralogy data from surface sediments collected from the East Antarctic margin. The dataset includes sample metadata, bulk carbonate content, %calcite, % aragonite and mol% MgCO3 (i.e. the magnesium content of high-Mg calcite). This dataset was compiled from new (up to 2020) and archived sediment samples that contacted sufficient carbonates (typically greater than 3% CaCO3)/

Overview of the project and objectives: Assessing the contribution of the different N substrates to the primary production process, such as the biogenic silica production and dissolution in the Antarctic sea-ice provides a means to understand the biogeochemical system functioning. In such a semi closed-type system, assess incorporation rates of HCO3-, NO3-, NH4+, SiOH4, BSi dissolution, nitrification, C-release in close-by ice-cores (3 ice-cores dedicated to (i) 13C-assimilation + 15NH4+ uptake rate, (ii) 13C-assimilation + 15NO3- uptake rate and nitrification, (iii) Biogenic silica production and dissolution via 30Si isotope tool) will allow improving the knowledge of system functioning. This is also closely linked to the thematic of iron availability since these experiments are done close to / on the Trace Metal site allowing us to hopefully propose a relatively complete image of biogeochemical activity and relationship with trace metals on this site. Methodology and sampling strategy: 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). 14C and 13C-incubation experiment intercalibration work were conducted on the Biosite (different place than TM site except for station 7) Incubation experiment samples are analyzed via (1) Elemental Analyzer - Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (EA-IRMS) for carbon and nitrogen (VUB, Brussels, Belgium); (2) High Resolution Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometer (HR-ICPMS) for silicon (RMCA, Brussels, Belgium).

Carbonate chemistry data for the antFOCE seawater samples. The download file contains an Excel spreadsheet with a number of worksheets detailing the samples collected from O'Brien Bay, Casey Station. The dataset includes information on oxygen levels, pH levels, temperature and salinity levels, as well as the concentrations of various elements (dissolved inorganic carbon, phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, silicate). Free-ocean CO2 enrichment (FOCE) experiments have been deployed in marine ecosystems to manipulate carbonate system conditions to those predicted in future oceans. We investigated whether the pH/carbonate chemistry of extremely cold polar waters can be manipulated in an ecologically relevant way, to represent conditions under future atmospheric CO2 levels, in an in-situ FOCE experiment in Antarctica. We examined spatial and temporal variation in local ambient carbonate chemistry at hourly intervals at two sites between December and February and compared these with experimental conditions. We successfully maintained a mean pH offset in acidified benthic chambers of -0.38 (plus or minus 0.07) from ambient for approximately 8 weeks. Local diel and seasonal fluctuations in ambient pH were duplicated in the FOCE system. Large temporal variability in acidified chambers resulted from system stoppages. The mean pH, Ωarag and fCO2 values in the acidified chambers were 7.688 plus or minus 0.079, 0.62 plus or minus 0.13 and 912 plus or minus 150 micro-atm respectively. Variation in ambient pH appeared to be mainly driven by salinity and biological production and ranged from 8.019 to 8.192 with significant spatio-temporal variation. This experiment demonstrates the utility of FOCE systems to create conditions expected in future oceans that represent ecologically relevant variation, even under polar conditions.

Carbonate chemistry data sets for the Antarctic Free Ocean Carbon Dioxide Enrichment experiment, Casey Station, East Antarctica, 2014/15. Project Summary: Currently, a quarter of the CO2 we emit is absorbed by the ocean. CO2 absorption in seawater changes its chemistry – reducing ocean pH (raising its acidity) – which has significant impacts on biological processes and serious implications for the resilience of marine ecosystems. As CO2 is more soluble in cold water we expect polar ecosystems to bear the heaviest burden of this 'ocean acidification'. We will perform the first in situ polar CO2 enrichment experiment to determine the likely impacts of ocean acidification on Southern Ocean sea-floor communities under increasing CO2 emissions.