This dataset was collected as part of an honours project by Jessica Wilks at Macquarie University (submitted May 2012). The samples analysed were taken from an expedition conducted by Dr Leanne Armand in 2011 as part of the KEOPS2 mission (KErguelen: compared study of the Ocean and the Plateau in Surface water). During this mission 7 locations (A3-1, A3-2, E1-3, E14W2, NPF-L, R2 and TEW) around the Kerguelen Plateau were sampled for seafloor sediment. Each attached spreadsheet represents the data from one of these locations. Three tubes of sediment were taken for each location. The data within each spreadsheet is separate for the three tubes. After the tubes of seafloor sediment were processed to remove organic material and carbonates (leaving nothing but siliceous material, primarily diatoms) slides were made with a small amount of material, three slides per tube of sediment. Diatoms were identified using a light microscope at 40x magnification. Approximately 400 frustules were counter per tube (ie per set of 3 slides) in order to represent the diversity of the species present. The number of each species or subspecies of diatom are tallied in the spreadsheets attached. Species identifications follow Armand et al 2008. Other information in the attached spreadsheets includes the seafloor depth at the point of sampling, the distance from the Kerguelen shoreline at the point of sampling, the amount of suspended material used on each slide, the number of field of view (at 40X) viewed to count the quota of 400 diatom frustules, and the calculated number of frustules/ gram of dry sediment weight. Counting protocol: centric frustules were counted only when 1) more than half of the frustule was intact; and 2) the frustule was clearly identifiable. If 1) but not 2) then the frustule was counted as "unidentified centric". For Rhizosolenia spp, frustules were couned if the apex was present and identifiable, otherwise it was counted as "R. unknown". Thalassiothrix and Tricotoxon were only counted if one end was present and identifiable. The number was later divided by 2, to give the number of complete frustules. Abbreviations: A. spp= Actinocyclus As. spp= Asteromphalus Az. spp= Azpeita Ch. spp= Chaetoceros Co. spp= Coscinodiscus C. spp= Cocconeis D. spp= Dactyliosen E. spp= Eucampia F. spp= Fragilariopsis O. spp= Odontella P. spp= Paralia Po. spp= Porosira R. spp= Rhizosolenia Th. spp= Thalassionema T. spp= Thalassiosira Locations A3-1, Kerguelen Plateau: -50.65333 S, 72.04 E A3-2, Kerguelen Plateau: -50.64722 S, 72.07 E E1-3, Kerguelen Plateau: -48.11667 S, 71.96667 E E14W2, Kerguelen Plateau: -48.7775 S, 71.43833 E NPF-L, Kerguelen Plateau: -48.62417 S, 74.81222 E R2, Kerguelen Plateau: -50.39389 S, 66.69944 E TEW, Kerguelen Plateau: -49.16083 S, 69.83389 E

This dataset contains quadrat images of the seafloor taken during ASAC project 379, "The Zooplankton Ecology of Ellis Fjord" by John Kirkwood. For more information about the project and associated datasets, see the metadata record "ASAC_379" (The Zooplankton Ecology of Ellis Fjord) at the provided URL. The images show many different species on the seafloor, including (but not limited to) copepods, amphipods, isopods, ostracods, krill, nematodes, ascidians and fish larvae. For a detailed list of species recorded in the project see the associated metadata record mentioned above. There are 931 images in the download file.

Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division conducted a benthic community survey using underwater still photographs on the shelf around the Mertz Glacier region. The purpose of the work was to collect high resolution still photographs of the seafloor across the shelf to address three main objectives: 1. to investigate benthic community composition in the area previously covered by the Mertz Glacier tongue and to the east, an area previously covered by fast ice 2. to investigate benthic community composition (or lack thereof) in areas of known iceberg scours 3. to investigate the lateral extent of cold water coral communities in canyons along the shelf break. Benthic photos were captured using a Canon EOS 20D SLR 8 megapixel stills camera fitted with a Canon EF 35mm f1.4 L USM lens in a 2500m rated flat port anodised aluminium housing. Two Canon 580EX Speedlight strobes were housed in 6000m rated stainless steel housings with hemispherical acrylic domes. The camera and strobes were powered with a 28V 2.5Ah cyclone SLA battery pack fitted in the camera housing and connected using Brantner Wetconn series underwater connectors. The results were obtained with 100 ASA and a flash compensation value of +2/3 of a stop. The focus was set manually to 7m and the image was typically exposed at f2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. The interval between photos was set to 10 or 15 seconds. The camera was fitted to either the CTD frame or the beam trawl frame and lowered to approximately 4-5 m from the bottom. Two laser pointers, set 50 cm apart, were used for scale. The camera was deployed at 93 stations, 7 using the beam trawl frame and 86 using the CTD frame. The stations were named by: 1. Camera deployment frame (e.g. CTD or beam trawl, BT) 2. Frame sequence number (e.g. CTD53) 3. Instrument (e.g. camera = CAM) 4. Sequence of camera deployments through the survey overall (e.g. first deployment = CAM01, second deployment = CAM02 etc). For example, BT5_CAM16 is the sixteenth camera deployment of the survey overall, and was the fifth deployment using the beam trawl frame. From the 93 stations, there were 75 successful camera deployments. There were no photos captured at 9 stations. This was due to the camera or strobes malfunctioning, the camera being too far from the bottom, or the camera or strobes being in the mud at the bottom. The photos at a further 9 stations are considered poor due to the camera being out of focus, the camera being a little too far from the bottom or because very few photos were captured of the bottom. The benthic photo will be used to document the fauna and communities associated with representative habitats in the study area. The post-cruise analysis of the benthic photos will involve recording seabed geology and biology (class or order, and whatever is significant for the habitat) for each image

This dataset contains environmental layers used to model the predicted distribution of demersal fish bioregions for the paper: Hill et al. (2020) Determining Marine Bioregions: A comparison of quantitative approaches, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. It contains climatological variables from satellite and modelled data that represent sea floor and sea surface conditions likely to affect the distribution of demersal fish including: depth, slope, seafloor temperatures, seafloor current, seafloor nitrate, sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a standard deviation and sea surface height standard deviation. Layers are presented at 0.1 degree resolution. "prediction_space" is a Rda file for R that consists of two objects: env_raster: a raster stack of the environmental layers pred_sp: a data.frame version of the env_raster where some variables have been transformed for statistical analysis and bioregion prediction. "Env_data_sources.xlsx" contains a description of each environmental variable and it's source.

This spreadsheet contains species lists and counts from four sediment trap records. The sediment traps were deployed for ~1 year north and south of the Chatham Rise, New Zealand, between 1996 and 1997. Sheets 1a and 1b refer to North Chatham Rise (NCR). 1a = the 300m trap. 1b = the 1000m trap. Sheets 2a and 2b are for the South Chatham Rise traps (SCR). 2a= 300m, 2b= 1000m. Counting was undertaken on 1/16th splits. Material was cleaned of organics before diatom counting under light microscopy. Coccolith counting on uncleaned material was only undertaken at the 300m traps. Radiolarians and silicoflagellates were counted but not identified. Diatoms and coccoliths were counted along non-overlapping transects until 300 specimens had been counted per sample, or until 10 transects had been made. This dataset includes counts of diatom, coccolithophores, radiolarians and silicoflagellates for four sediment trap records- North Chatham Rise (NCR) and South Chatham Rise (SCR) at two trap depths each (300 m and 1000 m). It is intended as supplementary material to Wilks et al. 2018 (submitted) "Diatom and coccolithophore assemblages from archival sediment trap samples of the Subtropical and Subantarctic Southwest Pacific." Numbers are raw count per sample cup. Authorities are given. Coordinates of traps given in degrees, minutes and seconds.

Zooplankton were collected with a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 8+1 net) from 37 sampling sites on and near the Southern Kerguelen Plateau. The contents of each net were preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde. This dataset covers the counts of the contents of the RMT8 net and includes the abundances for the euphausiid Thysanoessa macrura and the salp Salpa thompsoni. The contents were identified and counted under a Leica M165C stereo-microscope. A flow meter attached to the mouth of the RMT 8 was used to record the volume of seawater passing through the net. The count for Thysanoessa macrura includes the total of all developmental stages. For the salps abundances are shown for the 2 developmental phases - solitary individuals and aggregates.

The RSV Aurora Australis V2 – Casey Resupply and Marine Science Voyage took place from 5 December 2014 to 25 January 2015. The voyage code is v2_201415020. The principal objective of the voyage was to undertake the Casey Resupply and then conduct marine science in the Dalton Polynya and near the Mertz Glacier. A downwards looking video camera system was fitted to the CTD and operated during most casts. The system was remotely controlled and typically operated only while the CTD was near the bottom although some videos show the complete descent through the water column. The video footage for each deployment was labelled as follows: VOYAGE_DATE_TIME_SITE.MTS Where: VOYAGE = v2_201415020 DATE = YYYY-MM-DD TIME = HHMMUTC (in 24 hr time) SITE = the CTD site name (e.g. SiteA5) Details on each site, including geographic coordinates and depth, are available in the Marine Data Voyage Report. The underway data from the voyage is available here: https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/201415020

Ten sediment cores were collected from 3 marine bays in the Windmill Islands. Two cores were collected in Sparkes Bay, one in Shannon Bay, and seven in Brown Bay. Only diatom data are presented here, however Pb210 and metal analyses have also been undertaken - contact Ian Snape (ian.snape@aad.gov.au) for more information regarding this. The diatom spreadsheet (diatom_data) lists the relative abundance of benthic species. The abbreviation used to identify species are explained in the separate file called sp_list. Each core has been saved as a separate file. The STE cores were collected from within a couple of meters of each other. These cores were collected in close proximity to a tip site at one end of Brown Bay. BBMid was collected from the middle of the bay, while BB Outer 1 and 2 were collected from the outer regions of this bay, and thus represent the greatest distance from the tip site. Unless otherwise stated, the lowest number within each core represents the youngest sample. This work was completed as part of ASAC project 1130 (ASAC_1130) and project 2201 (ASAC_2201). Public summary from project 1130: Algal mats grow on sea floor in most shallow marine environments. They are thought to contribute more than half of the total primary production in many of these areas, making them a critical food source for invertebrates and some fish. We will establish how important they are in Antarctic marine environments and determine the effects of local sewerage and tip site pollution. We will also investigate the impact on the algal mats of the additional UV radiation which results from the ozone hole. Public summary from project 2201: As a signatory to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty Australia is committed to comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment. This protocol requires that activities in the Antarctic shall be planned and conducted on the basis of information sufficient to make prior assessments of, and informed judgements about, their possible impacts on the Antarctic environment. Most of our activities in the Antarctic occur along the narrow fringe of ice-free rock adjacent to the sea and many of our activities have the potential to cause environmental harm to marine life. The Antarctic seas support the most complex and biologically diverse plant and animal communities of the region. However, very little is known about them and there is certainly not sufficient known to make informed judgements about possible environmental impacts. The animals and plants of the sea-bed are widely accepted as being the most appropriate part of the marine ecosystem for indicating disturbance caused by local sources. Attached sea-bed organisms have a fixed spatial relationship with a given place so they must either endure conditions or die. Once lost from a site recolonisation takes some time, as a consequence the structure of sea-bed communities reflect not only present conditions but they can also integrate conditions in the past. In contrast, fish and planktonic organisms can move freely so their site of capture does not indicate a long residence time at that location. Because sea-bed communities are particularly diverse they contain species with widely differing life strategies, as a result different species can have very different levels of tolerance to stress; this leads to a range of subtle changes in community structure as a response to gradually increasing disturbance, rather than an all or nothing response. This project will examine sea-bed communities near our stations to determine how seriously they are affected by human activities. This information will be used to set priorities for improving operational procedures to reduce the risk of further environmental damage. The fields in this dataset are: Species Site Abundance Benthic

The collection aims to showcase the range of Southern Ocean diatom species found in the major hydrological provinces of the Australian Sector of the Southern Ocean along the 140 degrees E. The collection includes specimens collected in the Sub-Antarctic Zone (SAZ), Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) and Antarctic Zone (AZ). Samples were collected with McLane Parflux time series sediment traps placed at several depths in the SAZ (47 degrees S site), PFZ (54 degrees S site) and AZ and (61 degrees S site) during the decade 1997-2007. The shortest sampling intervals were eight days and corresponded with the austral summer and autumn, whereas the longest interval was 60 days and corresponded with austral winter. Split aliquots were obtained for taxonomic analysis via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For improved taxonomic imaging, samples were treated with hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide to remove carbonates and organic matter, respectively. A micropipette was used to transfer the suspension of selected samples to a round-glass cover slip following standard decantation method outlined by Barcena and Abrantes (1998). Samples were air-dried and coated with gold for SEM analysis. SEM analysis was carried out using a JEOL 6480LV scanning electron microscope. Taxonomy Diatoms include all algae from the Class Bacillariophyceae and follow the standardised taxonomy of World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Order Asterolamprales Family Asterolampraceae Asteromphalus hookeri Ehrenberg Asteromphalus hyalinus Karsten Order Achnanthales Family Cocconeidaceae Cocconeis sp. Order Bacillariales Family Bacillariaceae Fragilariopsis curta (Van Heurck) Hustedt Fragilariopsis cylindrus (Grunow) Krieger Fragilariopsis kerguelensis (O'Meara) Hustedt Fragilariopsis pseudonana (Hasle) Hasle Fragilariopsis rhombica (O'Meara) Hustedt Fragilariopsis separanda Hustedt Nitzschia bicapitata Cleve Nitzschia kolaczeckii Grunow Nitzschia sicula (Castracane) Husted var. bicuneata (Grunow) Hasle Nitzschia sicula (Castracane) Husted var. rostrata Hustedt Pseudo-nitzschia heimii Manguin Pseudo-nitzschia lineola (Cleve) Hasle Pseudo-nitzschia turgiduloides Hasle Order Chaetocerotanae incertae sedis Family Chaetoceraceae Chaetoceros aequatorialis var. antarcticus Cleve Chaetoceros atlanticus Cleve Chaetoceros dichaeta Ehrenberg Chaetoceros peruvianus Brightwell Chaetoceros sp. Order Corethrales Family Corethraceae Corethron spp. Order Coscinodiscales Family Coscinodiscaceae Stellarima stellaris (Roper) Hasle et Sims Family Hemidiscaceae Actinocyclus sp. Azpeitia tabularis (Grunow) Fryxell et Sims Hemidiscus cuneiformis Wallich Roperia tesselata (Roper) Grunow Order Hemiaulales Family Hemiaulaceae Eucampia antarctica (Castracane) Mangin Order Naviculales Family Plagiotropidaceae Tropidoneis group Family Naviculaceae Navicula directa (Smith) Ralfs Family Pleurosigmataceae Pleurosigma sp. Order Rhizosoleniales Family Rhizosoleniaceae Dactyliosolen antarcticus Castracane Rhizosolenia antennata f. semispina Sundstrom Rhizosolenia antennata (Ehrenberg) Brown f. antennata Rhizosolenia cf. costata Gersonde Rhizosolenia polydactyla Castracane f. polydactyla Rhizosolenia simplex Karsten Proboscia alata (Brightwell) Sundstrom Proboscia inermis (Castracane) Jordan Ligowski Order Thalassiosirales Family Thalassiosiraceae Porosira pseudodenticulata (Hustedt) Jouse Thalassiosira ferelineata Hasle et Fryxell Thalassiosira gracilis (Karsten) Hustedt Thalassiosira lentiginosa (Janisch) Fryxell Thalassiosira oestrupii (Ostenfeld) Hasle var. oestrupii Fryxell et Hasle Thalassiosira oliveriana (O'Meara) Makarova et Nikolaev Thalassiosira tumida (Janisch) Hasle Order Thalassionematales Family Thalassionemataceae Thalassionema nitzschioides var. lanceolatum Grunow Thalassiothrix antarctica Schimper ex Karsten Data available: 73 SEM images of the most abundant diatom species found at the three sampling sites. Samples were collected by several sediment traps placed at different depths in