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. Particulate organic matter (POM) and animals from the zooplankton (water column) and the sea ice cover (meiofauna) were processed for stable isotopes - delta 13 Carbon and delta 15 Nitrogen.

Crustaceans are an important component of the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Large numbers live in or close to the sea-ice cover, using it as a refuge from predation and a source of food. However, the impact of these animals on algae that grows in the sea ice is unknown. This study is examining the diets and grazing rates of crustaceans in the Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem. These results will aid our understanding of the fate of algal production in sea-ice and will enable the construction of realistic carbon budgets for this ecosystem. This project was commenced in July 2002. A five-week voyage was undertaken on the RV Aurora Australis in October and November 2002, in the vicinity of the Mertz Glacier. Pack ice cores and sub-ice water samples were collected from 8 locations, with 3 to 5 samples of each type collected per site. The cores were sectioned in the field, melted and treated for further analysis. All samples were either preserved or frozen, depending on future requirements, and returned to Australia. Sea ice cores were processed for a range of analyses including microscopy, lipid class and fatty acid determination and stable isotope analysis. A physical description of the pack ice environment (ice type, ice thickness, snow cover, temperature profiles, salinity profiles) was also compiled. A second sampling of the pack ice occurred in Sept-Oct 2003. To date, the salinity and temperature profiles of the pack ice cores have been described and a database compiled of the physical description of the region. A large number of samples (10 sites; 5 ice/water/animal samples per site) was collected and analysis has begun of stable isotopic signatures, fatty acids, chlorophyll a and species identifications. Crustaceans have been sorted under the microscope and initial descriptions of gut contents begun. The third successful sampling trip was to the fast ice surrounding Davis Station during the 2003/04 summer. Two sites were sampled regularly, with a full suite of analyses undertaken. This will provide a temporal component to the project to complement the spatial approach used in the pack ice. Analysis of the fast ice samples is ongoing. Two more sampling trips were carried out during the 2004/05 season. The first in the pack ice offshore from Casey and the second in the fast ice at Casey. The same suite of analyses as listed above was carried out and analyses are ongoing. The download file contains five excel spreadsheets, as well as a word document which further explains data collection.

This metadata record contains an Excel file containing stable isotope analysis data of marine sediments and invertebrates collected at Davis Station from December 2009 to March 2010. Refer to Gillies et al. 2013 for sampling and analysis details. Gillies C.L., Stark J.S., Johnstone G.J., Smith S.D.A., 2013. Establishing a food web model for coastal Antarctic benthic communities: a case study from the Vestfold Hills, Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 478: 27 – 41. Also refer to the Davis STP reports lodged under metadata record Davis_STP for methods and result details. Background of the Davis STP project Refer to the Davis STP reports lodged under metadata record Davis_STP.