Depth related changes in sediment characteristics and the composition of infaunal invertebrate communities were investigated at two sites in the Windmill Islands around Casey station, East Antarctica, during the 2006/07 summer. Sediment characteristics were investigated via sediment cores (5cm deep x 5cm diameter) collected from 4 depths (7m, 11m, 17, and 22m) from each of three transects at two sites (McGrady Cove and O'Brien Bay 1). Measured sediment characteristics included grain size distribution, total organic carbon and the concentration of a range of heavy metals. This work was conducted as part of ASAC 2201 (ASAC_2201).

Depth related changes in the composition of infaunal invertebrate communities were investigated at two sites in the Windmill Islands around Casey station, East Antarctica, during the 2006/07 summer. Sediment cores (10cm deep x 10cm diameter) were collected from 4 depths (7m, 11m, 17, and 22m) from each of three transects at two sites (McGrady Cove and O'Brien Bay 1). Cores were sieved through a 500 micron mesh and extracted fauna were preserved in 8% formalin and were later counted and identified to species or to morphospecies established through previous infaunal research at Casey. This work was conducted as part of ASAC 2201 (ASAC_2201).

Infaunal marine invertebrates were collected from inside and outside of patches of white bacterial mats from several sites in the Windmill Islands, Antarctica, around Casey station during the 2006-07 summer. Samples were collected from McGrady Cove inner and outer, the tide gauge near the Casey wharf, Stevenson's Cove and Brown Bay inner. Sediment cores of 10cm depth and 5cm diameter were collected by divers using a PVC corer from inside (4 cores) and outside (4 cores) each bacterial patch. The size of each patch varied from site to site. Cores were sieved at 500 microns and the extracted fauna preserved in 4 percent neutral buffered formalin. All fauna were counted and identified to species where possible or assigned to morphospecies based on previous infaunal sampling around Casey. An excel spreadsheet is available for download at the URL given below. The spreadsheet does not represent the complete dataset, and is only the bacterial mat infauna data. Regarding the infauna dataset: - in - in the mat or patch of bacteria and out is in the "normal" sediment surrounding the patch without evidence of any bacterial mat presence. - Patch numbers were allocated to ensure there was no confusion between patches in the same area. - Fauna names are our identification codes for each species. Some we have confirmed identifications for, some not. Species names, where we have them and as we get them, are listed against these codes in the Casey marine soft-sediment fauna identification guide. This work was completed as part of ASAC 2201 (ASAC_2201).