Jump to results: data
Experimental Set-up: An unreplicated, 6-level, dose-response experiment was conducted on a natural microbial community over a range of pCO2 levels (343, 506, 634, 953, 1140 and 1641 micro atm). Seawater was collected on the 19th November 2014 approximately 1 km offshore from Davis Station, Antarctica (68 degrees 35' S, 77 degrees 58' E) from an area of ice-free water amongst broken fast-ice. The seawater was collected using a thoroughly rinsed 720L Bambi bucket slung beneath a helicopter and transferred into a 7000 L polypropalene reservoir tank. Six 650 L polyethene tanks (minicosms), located in a temperature-controlled shipping container, were immediately filled via teflon lined house via gravity with an in-line 200 micron Arkal filter to exclude metazooplankton. The minicosms were simultaneously filled to ensure they contained the same starting community. The ambient water temperature at time of collection was -1.0 degrees C and the minicosms were maintained at a temperature of 0 degrees C plus or minus 0.5 degrees C. At the centre of each minicosm there was an auger shielded for much of its length by a tube of polythene. This auger was rotated at 15 rpm to gently mix the contents of the tanks. Each minicosm tank was covered with an acrylic air-tight lid to prevent pCO2 off-gasing outside of the minicosm headspace. The minicosm experiment was conducted between the 19th November and the 7th December 2014. Initially, the contents of the tanks were given a day to equibrate to the minicosms. This was followed by a five day acclimation period to increasing pCO2 at low light (0.8 plus or minus 0.2 micro mol m-1 s-1), allowing cell physiology to acclimated to the pCO2 increase (days 1-5). During this period the pCO2 was progressively adjusted over five days to the target level for each tank (343 - 1641 micro atm). Thereafter pCO2 was adjusted daily to maintain the pCO2 level in each treatment (see carbonate chemistry section below). Following acclimation to the various pCO2 treatments light was progressively adjusted to 89 plus or minus 16 micro mol m-2 s-1 at a 19 h light:5 h dark cycle. The community was incubated and allowed to grow for a further 10 days (days 8-18) with target pCO2 adjusted back to target each day (see carbonate chemistry section below). For a more detailed description of minicosm set-up, lighting and carbonate chemistry see; Davidson, A. T., McKinlay, J., Westwood, K., Thomson, P. G., van den Enden, R., de Salas, M., Wright, S., Johnson, R., and Berry, K.:Enhanced CO2 concentrations change the structure of Antarctic marine microbial communities, Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 552, 93-113, 2016. Deppeler, S. L., Petrou, K., Westwood, K., Pearce, I., Pascoe, P., Schulz, K. G., and Davidson, A. T.: Ocean acidification effects on productivity in a coastal Antarctic marine microbial community, Biogeosciences, 2017. Light microscopy sampling and analysis: Samples from each minicosm were collected on days 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 for microscopic analysis to determine protistan identity and abundance. Approximately 960 mL were collected from each tank, on each day. Samples were fixed with 20 40 mL of Lugol's iodine and allowed to sediment out at 4 degrees C for greater than or equal to 4 days. Once cells had settled the supernatant was gently aspirated till approximately 200 mL remained. This was transferred to a 250 mL measuring cylinder, again allowed to settle (as above), and the supernatant gently aspirated. The remaining 20 mL. This final 20 mL was transferred into a 30 mL amber glass bottle. All samples were stored and transported at 4 degrees C to the Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Australia for analysis. Lugols-fixed and sedimented samples were analysed by light microscopy between July 2015 and February 2017. Between 2 to 10 mL (depending on cell-density) of lugols-concentrated samples was placed into a 10 mL Utermohl cylinder (Hydro-Bios, Keil) and the cells allowed to settle overnight. Due to the large variation in size and taxa, a stratified counting procedure was employed to ensure both accurate identification of small cells and representative counts of larger cells. All cells greater than 20 microns were identified and counted at 20x magnification; those less than 20 microns at 40x magnification. For larger cells (greater than 20 microns), 20 randomly chosen fields of view (FOV) at 3.66 x 106 microns2 counted to gain an average cells per L. For smaller cells (less than 20 microns), 20 randomly chosen FOVs at 2.51 x 105 microns2 were counted. Counts were conducted on an Olympus IX 81 microscope with Nomarski interference optics. Identifications were determined using (Scott and Marchant, 2005) and FESEM images. Autotrophic protists were distinguished from heterotrophs via the presence of chloroplasts and based on their taxonomic identity. Electron microscopy sampling and analysis: A further 1 L was taken on days 0, 6, 13 and 18 for analysis by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). 25 These samples were concentrated to 5 mL by filtration over a 0.8 micron polycarbonate filter. Cells were resuspended, the concentrate transferred to a glass vial and fixed to a final concentration of 1% EM-grade gluteraldehyde (ProSciTech Pty Ltd). All samples were stored and transported at 4 degrees C to the Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Australia for analysis. Gluteraldehyde-fixed samples were prepared for FESEM imaging using a modified polylysine technique (Marchant and Thomas, 30 1983). In brief, a few drops of gluteraldehyde-fixed sample were placed on polylysine coated cover slips and post-fixed with OsO4 (4%) vapour for 30 min, allowing cells to settle onto the coverslips. The coverslips were then rinsed in distilled water and dehydrated through a graded ethanol series ending with emersion in 100% dry acetone before being critically point dried in a Tousimis Autosamdri-815 Critical Point Drier. The coverslips were mounted onto 12.5 mm diameter aluminium stubs and sputter-coated with 7 nm of platinum/palladium in a Cressington 208HRD coater. Imaging of stubs was conducted by JEOL JSM6701F FESEM and protists identified using (Scott and Marchant, 2005). All units are in cells per L estimates from individual field of view counts (FOV) Protistan taxa and functional group descriptions and abbreviations: Autotrophic Dinoflagellate (AD) - including Gymnodinium sp., Heterocapsa and other unidentified autotrophic dinoflagellates Bicosta antennigera (Ba) Chaetoceros (Cha) - mainly Chaetoceros castracanei and Chaetoceros tortissimus but also other Chaetoceros present including C. aequatorialis var antarcticus, C. cf. criophilus, C. curvisetus, C. dichaeta, C. flexuosus, C. neogracilis, C. simplex Choanoflagellates (except Bicosta) (Cho) - mainly Diaphanoeca multiannulata but also Parvicorbicula circularis and Parvicorbicula socialis present in low numbers Ciliates (Cil) - mostly cf. Strombidium but other ciliates also present Discoid Centric Diatoms greater than 40 microns (DC.l) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira, Landeria, Stellarima or similar Discoid Centric Diatoms 20 to 40 microns (DC.m) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira, Landeria, Stellarima or similar Discoid Centric Diatoms less than 20 microns (DC.s) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira Euglenoid (Eu) - unidentified Fragilariopsis greater than 20 microns (F.l) - mainly Fragilariopsis cylindrus, some Fragilariopsis kerguelensis and potentially some Fragilariopsis curta present in very low numbers Fragilariopsis less than 20 microns (F.s) - mainly Fragilariopsis cylindrus, and potentially some Fragilariopsis curta present in very low numbers Heterotrophic Dinoflagellates (HD) - including Gyrodinium glaciale, Gyrodinium lachryma, other Gyrodinium sp., Protoperidinium cf. antarcticum and other unidentified heterotrophic dinoflagellates Landeria annulata (La) Other Centric Diatoms (OC) - Corethronb pennatum, Dactyliosolen tenuijuntus, Eucampia antarctica var recta, Rhizosolenia imbricata and other Rhizosolenia sp. Odontella (Od) - Odontella weissflogii and Odontella litigiosa Other Flagellates (OF) - Dictyocha speculum, Chrysochromulina sp., unknown haptophyte, Phaeocystis antarctica (flagellate and gamete forms), Mantoniella sp., Pryaminmonas gelidicola, Triparma columaceae, Triparma laevis subsp ramispina, Geminigera sp., Bodo sp., Leuocryptos sp., Polytoma sp., cf. Protaspis, Telonema antarctica, Thaumatomastix sp. and other unidentified nano- and picoplankton Other Pennate Diatoms (OP) - Entomonei kjellmanii var kjellmanii, Navicula gelida var parvula, Nitzschia longissima, other Nitzschia sp., Plagiotropus gaussi, Pseudonitzschia prolongatoides, Synedropsis sp. Phaeocystis antarctica (Pa) - colonial form only Proboscia truncata (Pro) Pseudonitzschia subcurvata (Ps) Pseudonitzschia turgiduloies (Pt) Stellarima microtrias (Sm) Thalassiosira antarctica (Ta) Thalassiosira ritscheri (Tr) *.se = standard error for mean cell per L estimate ie. Tr.se = standard error for the mean cells per L for Thalassiosira ritscheri based on individual FOV estimates as described in methods above. Davis Station Antarctica Experiment conducted between 19th November and 7th December 2014.
An unreplicated, six-level dose-response experiment was conducted using 650 L incubation tanks (minicosms) adjusted to fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2) from 343 to 11641 uatm. The minicosms were filled with near-shore water from Prydz Bay, East Antarctica and the protistan composition and abundance was determined by microscopy analysis of samples collected during the 18 day incubation. Abundant taxa with low variance were examined separately, but rare taxa with high variance were combined into functional groups (descriptions below). Cluster analyses and ordinations were performed on Bray-Curtis resemblance matrixes formed from square-root transformated abundance data. This transformation was assessed as appropriate for reducing the influence of abundance species, as judged from a one-to-one relationship between observed dissimilarities and ordination distances (ie. Shepard diagram, not shown). The Bray-Curtis metric was used as it is recommended for ecological data due to its treatment of joint absences (ie. these do not contribute towards similarity), and giving more weight to abundant taxa rather than rare taxa. The data days 1 to 8 and then days 8 to 18 were analysed separately to distinguish community structure in the acclimation period and in the exponential growth phase during the incubation period of the experiment. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analyses, based on the Bray-Curtis resemblance matrix, was performed using group-average linkage. Significantly different clusters of samples were determined using SIMPROF (similarity profile permutations method) with an alpha value of 0.05 and based on 1000 permutations. An unconstrained ordination by non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) was performed on the resemblance matrix with a primary (`weak') treatment of ties. This was repeated over 50 random starts to ensure a globally optimal solution according to . Clusters are displayed in the nMDS using colour. Weighted average of sample scores are shown in the nMDS to show the approximate contribution of each species to each sample. The assumption of a linear trend for predictors within the ordination was checked for each covariate, and in all instances was found to be justified. A constrained canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP) was conducted according to the Vegan protocol using the Bray-Curtis resemblance matrix. This analysis was used to assess the significance of the environmental covariates, or constraints, in determining the microbial community structure. Unlike the nMDS ordination, the CAP analysis uses the resemblance matrix to partition the total variance in the community composition into unconstrained and constrained components, with the latter comprising only the variation that can be attributed to the constraining variables, fCO2, Si, P and NOx. Random reassignment of sample resemblance was performed over 199 permutations to compute the pseudo-F statistic as a measure of significance of each environmental constraint in the structural change of the microbial community. A forward selection strategy was used to choose a minimum subset of significant constraints that still account for the majority of the variation within the microbial community. All analysis were performed using R v1.0.136 and the add-on package vegan v2.4-2. Protistan taxa and functional group descriptions and abbreviations: Autotrophic Dinoflagellate (AD) - including Gymnodinium sp., Heterocapsa and other unidentified autotrophic dinoflagellates Bicosta antennigera (Ba) Chaetoceros (Cha) - mainly Chaetoceros castracanei and Chaetoceros tortissimus but also other Chaetoceros present including C. aequatorialis var antarcticus, C. cf. criophilus, C. curvisetus, C. dichaeta, C. flexuosus, C. neogracilis, C. simplex Choanoflagellates (except Bicosta) (Cho) - mainly Diaphanoeca multiannulata but also Parvicorbicula circularis and Parvicorbicula socialis present in low numbers Ciliates (Cil) - mostly cf. Strombidium but other ciliates also present Discoid Centric Diatoms greater than 40 microns (DC.l) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira, Landeria, Stellarima or similar Discoid Centric Diatoms 20 to 40 microns (DC.m) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira, Landeria, Stellarima or similar Discoid Centric Diatoms less than 20 microns (DC.s) - unidentified centrics of the genera Thalassiosira Euglenoid (Eu) - unidentified Fragilariopsis greater than 20 microns (F.l) - mainly Fragilariopsis cylindrus, some Fragilariopsis kerguelensis and potentially some Fragilariopsis curta present in very low numbers Fragilariopsis less than 20 microns (F.s) - mainly Fragilariopsis cylindrus, and potentially some Fragilariopsis curta present in very low numbers Heterotrophic Dinoflagellates (HD) - including Gyrodinium glaciale, Gyrodinium lachryma, other Gyrodinium sp., Protoperidinium cf. antarcticum and other unidentified heterotrophic dinoflagellates Landeria annulata (La) Other Centric Diatoms (OC) - Corethronb pennatum, Dactyliosolen tenuijuntus, Eucampia antarctica var recta, Rhizosolenia imbricata and other Rhizosolenia sp. Odontella (Od) - Odontella weissflogii and Odontella litigiosa Other Flagellates (OF) - Dictyocha speculum, Chrysochromulina sp., unknown haptophyte, Phaeocystis antarctica (flagellate and gamete forms), Mantoniella sp., Pryaminmonas gelidicola, Triparma columaceae, Triparma laevis subsp ramispina, Geminigera sp., Bodo sp., Leuocryptos sp., Polytoma sp., cf. Protaspis, Telonema antarctica, Thaumatomastix sp. and other unidentified nano- and picoplankton Other Pennate Diatoms (OP) - Entomonei kjellmanii var kjellmanii, Navicula gelida var parvula, Nitzschia longissima, other Nitzschia sp., Plagiotropus gaussi, Pseudonitzschia prolongatoides, Synedropsis sp. Phaeocystis antarctica (Pa) - colonial form only Proboscia truncata (Pro) Pseudonitzschia subcurvata (Ps) Pseudonitzschia turgiduloies (Pt) Stellarima microtrias (Sm) Thalassiosira antarctica (Ta) Thalassiosira ritscheri (Tr) *.se = standard error for mean cell per L estimate ie. Tr.se = standard error for the mean cells per L for Thalassiosira ritscheri based on individual FOV estimates as described in methods above.
Trace and rare earth element geochemical data analysed from glass mounts from samples collected from Heard Island, Kerguelen Plateau. Samples were analysed at the University of Tasmania LA-ICPMS Facilities between 2014-2019. ICPMS trace elements analysis in CODES, School of Physical Sciences (Earth Sciences), University of Tasmania (modified after P.Robinson by E.Lounejeva, August 2017) Digestion 100.00 ± 0.05 mg of rock powder was dissolved in a mixture of inorganic acids (HF:H2SO4=3:3) at 180°C in closed PTFE vessels in Digestion Acid System (DAS, PicoTrace®). The mixture was then evaporated to dryness. Solid residuals were dissolved in HClO4, evaporated, re-dissolved in HNO3 and then diluted to 100.000 ± 0.050 ml. The resulting final solution contained the completely dissolved sample diluted 1000 times in a weak acid (2v/v% HNO3), 10 μg/ml of a mixture of Rh, In and Re as internal standard and traces of HF added to stabilize Ta and Nb. Digestion reagents blanks and international standards were processed along samples. All the solutions were then analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) on an Agilent®-7700x instrument within 48 hours of dilution. Calibration of the instrument involved high purity standards solutions (CHOICE Analytical ®) for quantification and for estimation of isobaric interferences from Ba, Ce, Nd, Pr and Zr, all prepared in the same matrix. Multi-elemental calibration solutions were prepared at concentrations 5, 10 and 20 μg/ml. Data reduction and Quality control Mass-spectral data were collected as counts per second using Mass Hunter (Agilent ®) software and reduced through home-developed spread sheet (CODES, UTAS) using Excel Software (Microsoft Corporation ®). Reduction includes corrections by isobaric interferences, background and digestion procedure blank contribution, instrumental drift and dilution. Quantification includes a secondary correction by linear regression on three standard referenced materials (SRM), namely TASGRAN, TASBAS and AGV-1. The overall analytical uncertainty was estimated for each analysis (see report). In addition, the data quality, precision and accuracy, can be estimated on replicates for the analysed unknown samples and a very well-known SRM, basalt BCR-2, as it has a similar matrix to the analysed samples. Elements analysed Li, Be, Sc, Ti, V , Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Rb, Sr, Y , Zr, Nb, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Te, Cs, Ba, REE (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu), Hf, Ta, W , Tl, Pb, Bi, Th, U Reagents used: Seastar BASELINE high purite grade (Seastar Chemicals Inc, USA), Type-I Mili-Q ultra-pure water (Merk Millipore) and high purity standards (HPS) (CHOICE Analytical). Environment for Sample preparation: Clean lab class ISO5. References: Agilent http://www.agilent.com/about/companyinfo/ CHOICE Analytical http://choiceanalytical.com.au/standards-and-crms/high-purity-standards/ GEOREM http://georem.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de/sample_query_pref.asp. PicoTrace http://www.picotrace.de/products-das.html
Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 1002 See the link below for public details on this project. Taken from the abstracts of the referenced papers: A morphological and physiological characterization of yeast strains CBS 8908, CBS 8915, CBS 8920, CBS 8925(T) and CBS 8926, isolated from Antarctic soils, was performed. Phylogenetic analyses of the sequences of the D1/D2 regions and the adjacent internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the large-subunit rDNA of these strains placed them into the Tremellales clade of the Hymenomycetes. The sequence data identified strains CBS 8908, CBS 8915 and CBS 8920 as belonging to the species Cryptococcus victoriae. Strains CBS 8925(T) and CBS 8926 were found to represent an unique clade within the Hymenomycetes, with Dioszegia crocea CBS 6714(T) being their closest phylogenetic relative. Fatty acid composition and proteome fingerprint data for these novel strains were also obtained. No sexual state was observed. A novel basidiomycetous species, Cryptococcus statzelliae, is proposed for strains CBS 8925(T) and CBS 8926. ####### Soil, snow and organic material, collected in November 1997 from the Vestfold Hills, Davis Base, Antarctica, were screened for yeasts. Two isolates, which were shown to be indistinguishable by rDNA sequencing and protein analysis by SDS-PAGE, are described in this communication as a novel species, Cryptococcus watticus sp. nov. (type culture, CBS 9496T=NRRL Y-27556T). Sequence analyses of the 26S rDNA D1/D2 region placed C. watticus in the hymenomycetous yeasts in a cluster with Holtermannia corniformis and Cryptococcus nyarrowii. This species has been allocated to the genus Cryptococcus on the basis of physiological and morphological characteristics. ####### In December 1997, 196 soil and snow samples were collected from Vestfold Hills, Davis Base, Antarctica. Two isolates, CBS 8804T (pink colonies) and CBS 8805 (yellow colonies), were shown by proteome analysis and DNA sequencing to represent the same species. Results from the sequencing of the D1/D2 region of the large rDNA subunit placed this species in the hymenomycetous tree in a unique sister clade to the Trichosporonales and the Tremellales. The clade consists of Holtermannia corniformis CBS 6979 and CBS strains 8804T, 8805, 8016, 7712, 7713 and 7743. Morphological and physiological characteristics placed this species in the genus Cryptococcus, with characteristics including the assimilation of D-glucuronate and myo-inositol, no fermentation, positive Diazonium blue B and urease reactions, absence of sexual reproduction and production of starch-like compounds. Fatty acid analysis identified large proportions of polyunsaturated lipids, mainly linoleic (C18:2) and, to a lesser extent, linolenic (C18:3) acids. On the basis of the physiological and phylogenetic data, isolates CBS 8804T and CBS 8805 are described as Cryptococcus nyarrowii sp. nov. ####### Worldwide glaciers are annually retreating due to global overheating and this phenomenon determines the potential lost of microbial diversity represented by psychrophilic microbial population sharing these peculiar habitats. In this context, yeast strains, all unable to grow above 20 degrees C, consisting of 42 strains from Antarctic soil and 14 strains isolated from Alpine Glacier, were isolated and grouped together based on similar morphological and physiological characteristics. Sequences of the D1/D2 and ITS regions of the ribosomal DNA confirmed the previous analyses and demonstrated that the strains belong to unknown species. Three new species are proposed: Mrakia robertii sp. nov. (type strain CBS 8912), Mrakia blollopis sp. nov. (type strain CBS 8921) and a related anamorphic species Mrakiella niccombsii sp. nov. (type strain CBS 8917). Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS region revealed that the new proposed species were closely related to each other within the Mrakia clade in the order Cystofilobasidiales, class Tremellomycetes. The Mrakia clade now contains 8 sub-clades. Teliospores were observed in all strains except CBS 8918 and for the Mrakiella niccombsii strains.
Introduction: Snow algae grow under extreme conditions of temperature and high exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. These organisms must have evolved ways to protect their cellular components from the harmful effects of UV. Snow algae, consequently, may produce compounds of benefit for protecting humans from skin cancer and other diseases resulting from exposure to UV light. This investigation (ASAC project #1099 in 2001) collected snow algae from various locations around Casey Station and the Windmill Islands, Antarctica. One of the primary goals was to examine algal extracts for UV-protecting compounds. Samples: Snow algal samples were returned to the laboratory in the US for characterization and analysis. Algae were identified, photomicrographed, characterized, compared to cultured snow algae and collecting results made in previous years (Ling). Methods/chemical analysis: Upon return to the US snow algae were processed in the following manner: green snow algae from Churchill Point (Ulothrix and Chloromonas species) and red snow algae collected from Sparkes Bay (Chlorosarcina and Chloromonas polyptera), were compared to cultured green snow algae (Chloromonas sp.). The Antarctic snow algae in melt water was centrifuged and the pellet resuspended in distilled water, sonicated and extracted with 2 X 4 ml ethyl acetate. The cultured snow algae was filtered and sonicated in water, then extracted with 2 X 4 ml ethyl acetate. After removal of the solvent the sample was either analyzed directly or converted to the TMS derivative prior to GC/MS analysis. Tentative structural assignments are based on the NIST mass spectral library and are summarized in the attached table. Preliminary results: Chromatograms and mass spectra of the free and TMS derivatized ethyl acetate soluble components of the cultured and two samples of the wild (Antarctic) snow algae have been compared using GC/MS methods. Structural assignments of the various components were based on a comparison of the unknown spectrum of the sample with NIST mass spectral library spectra; the structures are tentative. The samples differ in their complexity, with the cultured green snow algae showing major components distributed fairly evenly across the chromatogram. The wild green snow algae has components concentrated above the 13.5 min region of the chromatogram, with fewer components in the lower MW range. In contrast, the red snow algae (collected primarily at Sparkes Bay and Newcombe Bay near Casey), have a higher concentration of lower MW components than the other samples. Differences are also evident in the presence/absence of major components in the chromatograms. The fields in this dataset are: Species Location Sample Date Compounds
Metadata ID: ASAC_1313_Transects_2002-03 Title: Windmill Islands vegetation transects, surveyed 2002/03 (baseline) This record contains data associated with a Windmill Islands vegetation baseline survey conducted in 2002/03, under ASAC_1313. A previous pilot survey is described under metadata ID: ASAC_1087_Transects_1999-00 and surveys conducted after the baseline described here are recorded in metadata IDs: ASAC_1313_Transects_2007-08, ASAC_3042_Transects_2010-11, AAS_3129_Transects_2011-12, AAS_4046_Transects_2012-13. A description of the survey design (relevant to all survey periods and above mentioned metadata IDs) follow. In 2002/03 a series of vegetation transects were established at two Windmill Island sites: (1) Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) 135, on Bailey Peninsula (66.283 S, 110.533 E), and (2) Robinson Ridge (66.368 S, 110.587 E). See SCAR Map Catalogue (maps 14450 and 14451) for location details. In summary: Each site included 10 transects. Transects spanned a vegetation community gradient, from pure bryophyte stands to the point at which the bryophyte turf was predominantly moribund and encrusted with lichens. Transect locations established in 2002/03 were in different locations within the two sites from that surveyed in 1999/2000, but remained fixed thereafter. Transect lengths ranged between approximately 1 and 4 m (for 1999/2000 pilot; length information not known for transects established 2002/03). Transects were surveyed using quadrats (portable metal frames) to mark the survey area. Three quadrat positions were established per transect: end positions referred to as "Bryophyte" and "Lichen" communities and the middle position referred to as "Transitional" community. The location of quadrat positions are marked with small metal tags glued to nearby rocks. Letters on tags are: A, M and B; where A = Lichen community, M = Transitional community and B = Bryophyte community. For each quadrat location the vegetation was sampled, collecting nine small (tweezer-pinch size) vegetation samples at 10 cm intervals across a 20 x 20 cm quadrat. The vegetation surface of each quadrat was photographed (25 x 25 cm quadrat) and environmental variables such as moisture availability were determined. For details, see QuadratSpecs.txt (this metadata record) and metadata ID: AAS_4046_Transects_2012-13, data file: Transects Data Summary_2000-2013.xlsx, worksheet "Quadrat". Vegetation samples were analysed for species composition using microscopy techniques, with live bryophytes identified to species level and lichens to broad morphological groups. Quadrat photographs were analysed for broad vegetation cover patterns (e.g. % cover live moss, dead moss, crustose lichen etc). A list of all vegetation categories scored follows (with abbreviations commonly used in associated data files provided in brackets): Live bryophytes; green (Live Bryo, Live moss) Moribund bryophytes; dead/brown/encrusted (Mori, Moribund) bryophyte species Bryum pseudotriquetrum (Bry, Bryum) bryophyte species Ceratodon purpureus (Cerat, Ceratodon) bryophyte species Schistidium antarctici (Schistidium and Grim, Grimmia*) bryophyte species Cephaloziella varians (Ceph) Fruticose Lichens (Fr) Foliose Lichens (Fo) Crustose Lichens (Cr) (* in 2002/03 this species was still referred to as Grimmia antarctici, abbreviation: Grim, thereafter it is referred to as Schistidium antarctici). Further details for transect sample collection are provided in Ryan-Colton 2007, King 2009 and Benny 2013 (and for pilot survey conducted in 1999/2000, see Wasley 2004 and Wasley et al 202). Descriptions of data associated with this record are provided below under the following headings: 1. LOCATION (GPS) DATA (and MAPS) 2. QUADRAT PHOTOS 3. NOTEBOOK SCANS 4. MICROSCOPY SCORE SHEETS 5. FINESCALE SPECIES ABUNDANCE (MICROSCOPY) 6. BROADSCALE PERCENT COVER (IMAGE ANALYSIS) 7. ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES (e.g. MOISTURE, TEMPERATURE) 8. PROCESSED/COMPILED/WORKED Descriptions of data provided: 1. LOCATION (GPS) DATA (and MAPS) See data provided in metadata ID: AAS_4046_Transects_2012-13 and maps 14450 and 14451 in the SCAR Map Catalogue: http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/mapcat/display_map.cfm?map_id=14450 and http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/mapcat/display_map.cfm?map_id=14451. 2. QUADRAT PHOTOS TO BE PROVIDED - photo files for all quadrats (and transect/site images) 3. NOTEBOOK SCANS TO BE PROVIDED - as scanned PDFs - Laboratory notebook - Jane Wasley has hardcopy (to scan) at AAD - Field notebook - Jane Wasley has hardcopy (to scan) at AAD 4. MICROSCOPY SCORE SHEETS FILE: ASAC_1313-Transects 2002-03-Microscopy.pdf The provided pdf file is a scanned copy of A4 pages that were used as score sheets for microscopy analysis of vegetation samples collected from transects in 2002/03. Samples were analysed (for species composition) via microscopy techniques after collection (analysis date/s not known, except 20/2/03 which is given on the last page of the provided file (page 20 of 20) is 20/2/03). These samples will have been analysed over a long period of time (weeks?) around this date. One page per transect. Transects located at two sites: "Meltpuddle" and "Robbos" (corresponding to M and R in quadrat labels, respectively). Transect and quadrat locations are as provided in metadata ID: Windmill Islands Vegetation Transects (noting that Meltpuddle = ASPA 135). Each transect includes three quadrats (labelled: A, M, B). A = lichen community, M = transitional community, B = bryophyte community Description of terms and abbreviations: - Transect: Transect ID; two sites: Meltpuddle and Robbos, numbers 1-10 are transect number - Quadrat: Quadrat ID; e.g. M2A (USNEA). First character = site (M=Meltpuddle; R= Robbos), second character = transect number (1-10), third character = community (A=Lichen, M=Transitional, B=Bryopyte) - Tray: label and position information of where the nine samples per quadrat were stored. Samples were stored in tissue culture trays with wells (24 wells per tray; to be confirmed via lab or field notebooks) e.g. 17 (1-3) would indicate tray number 17 (rows, 1-3). - Sample ID: e.g. 1A, 3C. Description of vegetation categories scored: Bryophytes were determined as dead (brown) or live (green). If live then identified to species. Lichens were determined as macro or crustose lichens. If macro then identified to taxa. Full list of vegetation categories follows, terms provided in brackets ( ) are those used in metadata ID: Windmill Islands Vegetation Transects, if different from that used here: BRYOPHYTES - - Dead Bryophytes: bryophytes; dead/brown/encrusted (Moribund) - Live Brophytes: bryophytes; live/green (Live Bryo) Bryum = bryophyte species Bryum pseudotriquetrum Ceratodon = bryophyte species Ceratodon purpureus Grimmia = bryophyte species Grimmia Antarctici (Schistidium antarctici) Ceph = bryophyte species Cephaloziella varians LICHENS - - Macro Lichens: Usnea = lichen taxa Usnea spp. (Fruticose Lichens) Umbilicaria = lichen taxa Umbilicaria sp. (Foliose Lichens) Pseudophebe = lichen taxa Pseudophebe sp. (Fruticose Lichens) - Crustose Lichen: lichen taxa, all species of crustose form (Crustose Lichens) Hand written scores (numbers 0-4) are observations via microscopy analysis of each tweezer-pinch sized vegetation sample. Each sample was scored for relative abundance of each vegetation category, using a modified Braun- Blanquet scale (dominant=4, co-dominant=3, low abundance=2, trace=1 and absent=0). Details as described in Wasley et al 2012, Wasley 2004 and Ryan-Colton 2007. Hand written notes include: - Apotheca: fungal fruiting bodies obseved - NSUS: No sample collected, Usnea spp. present at sampling point - NSRO: No sample collected, rock at sampling point - NSCR: No sample collected, crustose lichens at sampling point - NSPS: No sample collected, Pseudophebe spp. present at sampling point - NSPS: No sample collected, Umbilicaria spp. present at sampling point - +US: Usnea spp. present at sampling point, in addition to the sample collected. - +US (CD): Usnea spp. co-dominant at sampling point (in addition to the sample collected). Note: this file was previously named: Transects 1999-2000_microscopy score sheets.pdf - indicating the data relate to samples collected in 1999/2000. Jane Wasley has changed this to 2002/03 (July 2015) for the following reasons: - the date on the last page (page 20 of 20) is 20/2/03 - Each transect only has three quadrats (A,M,B). This was the experimental design followed in 2002/3 (onward), but in the 1999/2000 survey there up to 17 quadrats per transect. This file has therefore been renamed 2002/3. Further information should be checked via raw data and field/lab notebooks and can be updated if required. 5. FINESCALE SPECIES ABUNDANCE (MICROSCOPY) FILE: Transects-Microscopy-2002-03.xls Note, this file (prior to 2015) had been located at: SOE_Windmill_Island_veg.zip\SOE_Windmill_Island_veg\2008 Data updates\Transect Microscopy.xls, indicating it was 2007/08 data. In July 2015, Jane Wasley renamed the file as 2002/03. Other sources should be crossed check to confirm this change from 2008 to 2003 is correct (JW thinks 2008 was the year this data was submitted to AADC, but the data relates to samples collected in 2002/03). Data provided in worksheet "raw" are values between 0-4, as described in worksheet "metadata". Samples were scored for species/taxa relative abundance using a modified Braun- Blanquet scale (dominant=4, co-dominant=3, low abundance=2, trace=1 and absent=0). This scoring method was also used for the 1999/2000 survey (metadata ID: ASAC_1087_Transects_1999-00), as described in Wasley et al 2012 and Wasley 2004. Field names as per other descriptions related to this metadata record (and other related "transects" metadata records). Some details provided in worksheet "metadata". 6. BROADSCALE PERCENT COVER (IMAGE ANALYSIS) FILE: Transects-%Cover-2002-03.xls Note, as per previous file, this file (prior to 2015) had been located at: SOE_Windmill_Island_veg.zip\SOE_Windmill_Island_veg\2008 Data updates\Transect % cover.xls, indicating it was 2007/08 data. In July 2015, Jane Wasley has renamed the file as 2002/03. The file provided is raw present cover data, collected in the field via visual observations (by Jane Wasley). Quadrat area = 20 x 20 cm, gridded at 5 cm intervals. Each quadrat has 16 observations recorded (labelled using a row/column system, labelled A1 through to D4; each representing one 5 x 5 cm grid square). Note: this methods was also used for 1999/2000 transects, but was not included from 2007/08 onward - replaced instead by analysis of quadrat photos. Worksheet names: Raw Field Book - raw data as recorded in field notebook %A - working step one, calculation of percent cover from raw data %B - working step two, calculation of percent cover from raw data Metadata - descriptions of abbreviations and terms. 7. ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES (e.g. MOISTURE, TEMPERATURE) FILE: Transects-TurfWaterContent-2002-03.xls Note, as per previous files, this file (prior to 2015) had been located at: SOE_Windmill_Island_veg.zip\SOE_Windmill_Island_veg\2008 Data updates\Turf Water Content.xls, indicating it was 2007/08 data. In July 2015, Jane Wasley has renamed the file as 2002/03. The file provided is raw turf water content data, measured via deployment of sponge cores into moss turf. Sponge cores were inserted into the vegetation, left to equilibrate for a period of time then collected in pre-weighed air tight tubes and returned to the laboratory. Wet weight was recorded (g). Sponges dried to determine dry weight (g). These data used to calculate TWC. TWC = (Wet weight-Dry weight)/Dry weight (g. H2O g-1 dw). Two worksheets: 'raw'contains data and 'metadata'provides descriptions for data field names and abbreviations. 8. PROCESSED/COMPILED/WORKED FILE: SoE72_update_0108.doc This word doc provides a summary of survey status. Likely prepared by Ellen Ryan-Colton, but details not known. Date prepared unknown. Appears to provide data collected 2002/03 only. FILES: Ellen Ryan-Colton 2007_Thesis.pdf and Ellen Ryan-Colton 2007_Appendix.pdf The files provided are PDF files of the University of Wollongong Honours thesis written by Ellen Ryan-Colon in 2007. This thesis presents the 2002/03 baseline survey data, provides a toolkit detailing survey methods for future surveys and trials some image analysis techniques (as an alternative to collecting broadscale percent cover data visually in the field). Data were collected from ASPA 135 and Robinson Ridge, as shown in maps 14450 and 14451 in the SCAR Map Catalogue.
2018-08-10 - these data have been superseded by a new metadata record and dataset - see the provided URL for more details. This record describes a compilation of trophic data from across the Southern Ocean. Data have been drawn from published literature, existing trophic data collections, AADC data sets, and unpublished collections. The database comprises two principal tables. The first table relates to direct sampling methods of dietary assessment, including gut, scat, and bolus content analyses, stomach flushing, and observed feeding. The second table is a compilation of stable isotope values. Each record in these two tables includes details such as the location and date of sampling, predator size and mass, prey size and mass, and estimates of dietary importance. Names have been validated against the World Register of Marine Species (http://www.marinespecies.org/). The schemas of these tables are described below, and a list of the sources used to populate the tables is provided with the data. A range of manual and automated checks were used to ensure that the entered data were as accurate as possible. These included visual checking of transcribed values, checking of row or column sums against known totals, and checking for values outside of allowed ranges. Suspicious entries were re-checked against original source. Apparent errors that could not be resolved were marked as such in the QUALITY_FLAG column, with the reason in the NOTES column. Notes on names 'Sp.' indicates unidentified members of a genus (e.g. 'Pachyptila sp.'). For unidentified taxa at other taxonomic levels, the taxonomic name has been used (e.g. Amphipoda, Myctophidae, Decapoda). Uncertain species identifications (e.g. 'Notothenia rossii?' or 'Gymnoscopelus cf. piabilis') were assigned the genus name (e.g. 'Notothenia sp.'). Original names were retained in a separate column to allow future cross-checking. WoRMS identifiers (APHIA_ID numbers) were recorded with each matched taxon. Grouped prey data in the diet sample table need to be handled with a bit of care. Papers commonly report prey statistics aggregated over groups of prey - e.g. one might give the diet composition by individual cephalopod prey species, and then an overall record for all cephalopod prey. The prey_is_aggregate column identifies such records. This allows us to differentiate grouped data like this from unidentified prey items from a certain prey group - for example, an unidentifiable cephalopod record would be entered as Cephalopoda (the scientific name), with 0 in the prey_is_aggregate column. A record that groups together a number of cephalopod records, possibly including some unidentifiable cephalopods, would also be entered as Cephalopoda, but with a 1 in the prey_is_aggregate column. See the notes on prey_is_aggregate, below. Schema: Diet sample table - LINK_ID: The unique identifier of this record - SOURCE_ID: The reference number of the source of this data record. The list of references is provided with the database and also kept at: http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/trophic/?tab=3 - LOCATION: The name of the location at which the data was collected. - WEST: The westernmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate western hemisphere longitudes) - EAST: The easternmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate western hemisphere longitudes) - SOUTH: The southernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate southern hemisphere latitudes) - NORTH: The northernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate southern hemisphere latitudes) - OBSERVATION_DATE_START: The start of the sampling period (UTC) - OBSERVATION_DATE_END: The end of the sampling period (UTC). If sampling was carried out over multiple seasons (e.g. during January of 2002 and January of 2003), these dates will indicate the first and last dates (as if the sampling was carried out from 1-Jan-2002 to 31-Jan-2003) - ALTITUDE_MIN: The minimum altitude of the sampling region, in metres (if applicable) - ALTITUDE_MAX: The maximum altitude of the sampling region, in metres (if applicable) - DEPTH_MIN: The shallowest depth of the sampling, in metres (if applicable) - DEPTH_MAX: The deepest depth of the sampling, in metres (if applicable) - PREDATOR_NAME_ORIGINAL: The name of the predator, as it appeared in the original source - PREDATOR_NAME: The scientific name of the predator (corrected, if necessary). - PREDATOR_COMMON_NAME: The common name of the predator (from the WoRMS taxonomic register) - PREDATOR_APHIA_ID: The numeric identifier of the predator in the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREDATOR_LIFE_STAGE: Life stage of the predator. e.g. 'adult', 'chick', 'larva'. Values 'C1'-'C3' refer to calyptopis larval stages of euphausiids. 'F1'-'F6' refer to furcilia larval stages of euphausiids. 'N1'-'N6' refer to nauplius stages of crustaceans. 'Copepodite 1'-'Copepodite 6' refer to developmental stages of copepodites - PREDATOR_BREEDING_STAGE: Stage of the breeding season of the predator, if applicable. e.g. 'brooding', 'chick rearing', 'nonbreeding', 'posthatching' - PREDATOR_SEX: Sex of the predator. 'male', 'female', 'both', or 'unknown' - PREDATOR_SAMPLE_COUNT: The number of predators for which data are given. If (say) 50 predators were caught but only 20 analysed, this column will contain 20. - PREDATOR_TOTAL_COUNT: The total number of predators sampled. If (say) 50 predators were caught but only 20 analysed, this column will contain 50. - PREDATOR_SAMPLE_COUNT: The identifier of this predator sample. PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID values are unique within a source (i.e. - SOURCE_ID, PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID pairs are globally unique). Rows with the same SOURCE_ID and PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID values relate to the same predator individual or population, and so can be combined (e.g. for prey diversity analyses). Subsamples are indicated by a decimal number S.nnn, where S is the parent PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID, and nnn (001-999) is the subsample number. Studies will often report detailed prey information for a large sample, and also report prey information for various subsamples of that sample (e.g. broken down by predator sex, or sampling season). - PREDATOR_SIZE_MIN: The minimum size of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_SIZE_MAX: The maximum size of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_SIZE_MEAN: The mean size of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_SIZE_SD: The standard deviation of the size of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_SIZE_UNITS: The units of size. Current values 'mm', 'cm', 'm' - PREDATOR_SIZE_NOTES: Notes on the predator size information, including a definition of what the size value represents (e.g. 'total length', 'standard length') - PREDATOR_MASS_MIN: The minimum mass of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_MASS_MAX: The maximum mass of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_MASS_MEAN: The mean mass of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_MASS_SD: The standard deviation of the mass of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_MASS_UNITS: The units of mass (e.g. 'g' or 'kg') - PREDATOR_MASS_NOTES: Notes on the predator mass information, including a definition of what the mass value represents (blank implies total body weight). Current values 'g', 'kg', 't' - PREY_NAME_ORIGINAL: The name of the prey item, as it appeared in the original source. - PREY_NAME: The scientific name of the prey item (corrected, if necessary). - PREY_COMMON_NAME: The common name of the prey item (from the WoRMS taxonomic register) - PREY_APHIA_ID: The numeric identifier of the prey in the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREY_IS_AGGREGATE: 'Y' indicates that this row is an aggregation of other rows in this data source. For example, a study might give a number of individual squid species records, and then an overall squid record that encompasses the individual records. Use the PREY_IS_AGGREGATE information to avoid double-counting during analyses. If there no entry in this column, it means that this information is not included anywhere else in the database and can be used freely when aggregating over taxonomic groups, for example - PREY_LIFE_STAGE: Life stage of the prey. e.g. 'adult', 'chick', 'larva' - PREY_SAMPLE_COUNT: The number of prey individuals from which size and mass measurements were made (note: NOT the total number of individuals of this prey type, unless all individuals in the sample were measured) - PREY_SIZE_MIN: The minimum size of the prey in the sample - PREY_SIZE_MAX: The maximum size of the prey in the sample - PREY_SIZE_MEAN: The mean size of the prey in the sample - PREY_SIZE_SD: The standard deviation of the size of the prey in the sample - PREY_SIZE_UNITS: The units of size. Current values 'mm', 'cm', 'm' - PREY_SIZE_NOTES: Notes on the prey size information, including a definition of what the size value represents (e.g. 'total length', 'standard length') - PREY_MASS_MIN: The minimum mass of the prey in the sample - PREY_MASS_MAX: The maximum mass of the prey in the sample - PREY_MASS_MEAN: The mean mass of the prey in the sample - PREY_MASS_SD: The standard deviation of the mass of the prey in the sample - PREY_MASS_UNITS: The units of mass. Current values 'mg', 'g', 'kg' - PREY_MASS_NOTES: Notes on the prey mass information, including a definition of what the mass value represents (blank implies total body weight) - FRACTION_DIET_BY_WEIGHT: The fraction (by weight) of the predator diet that this prey type made up (e.g. if Euphausia superba contributed 50% of the total mass of prey items, this value would be 0.5). Many papers represent very small dietary contributions as 'trace' or sometimes 'less than 0.1%'. These have been entered as -999 - FRACTION_DIET_BY_PREY_ITEMS: The fraction (by number) of prey items that this prey type made up (e.g. if 1000 Euphausia superba were found out of a total of 2000 prey items, this value would be 0.5). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as 'trace' or sometimes 'less than 0.1%'. These have been entered as -999 - FRACTION_OCCURRENCE: The number of times this prey item occurred in a predator sample, as a fraction of the number of non-empty samples (e.g. if Euphausia superba occurred in half of the non-empty stomachs examined, this value would be 0.5). Empty stomachs are ignored for the purposes of calculating fraction of occurrence. For gut content analyses (and any other study types where 'no prey' can occur in a sample), the fraction of empty stomachs is also given (using prey_name 'None' - e.g. if predator_total_count was 10 and 3 stomachs were empty, this will be 0.3). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as 'trace' or sometimes 'less than 0.1%'. These have been entered as -999 - QUALITATIVE_DIETARY_IMPORTANCE: Qualitative description of the dietary importance of this prey item (e.g. from comments about certain prey in the discussion text of an article), if numeric values have not been given. Current values are 'none', 'incidental', 'minor', 'major', 'almost exclusive', 'exclusive' - CONSUMPTION_RATE_MIN: The minimum consumption rate of this prey item - CONSUMPTION_RATE_MAX: The maximum consumption rate of this prey item - CONSUMPTION_RATE_MEAN: The mean consumption rate of this prey item - CONSUMPTION_RATE_SD: The standard deviation of the consumption rate of this prey item - CONSUMPTION_RATE_UNITS: The units of consumption rate (e.g. 'kg/day') - CONSUMPTION_RATE_NOTES: Notes about the consumption rate estimates - IDENTIFICATION_METHOD: How this dietary information was gathered. Multiple values can potentially be entered (separated by commas). Current values include 'scat content' (contents of scats), 'stomach flushing' (physical sampling of the stomach contents by flushing the contents out with water), 'stomach content' (physical sampling of the stomach contents from a dead animal), 'regurgitate content' (physical sampling of the contents of forced or spontaneous regurgitations), 'observed predation', 'bolus content' (physical sampling of the contents of boluses), 'nest detritus', 'unknown' - QUALITY_FLAG: An indicator of the quality of this record. 'Q' indicates that the data are known to be questionable for some reason. The reason should be in the notes column. 'G' indicates good data - IS_SECONDARY_DATA: An indicator of whether this record was entered from its primary source, or from a secondary citation. 'Y' here indicates that the data actually came from another paper and were being reported in this paper as secondary data. Secondary data records are likely to be removed at a later date and replaced with information from the original source. - NOTES: Any other notes - LAST_MODIFIED: The date of last modification of this record Schema: Isotope data table - RECORD_ID: The unique identifier of this record - SOURCE_ID: The reference number of the source of this data record. The list of references is provided with the database and also kept at: http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/trophic/?tab=3 - LOCATION: The name of the location at which the data was collected. - WEST: The westernmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate western hemisphere longitudes) - EAST: The easternmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate western hemisphere longitudes) - SOUTH: The southernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate southern hemisphere latitudes) - NORTH: The northernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values indicate southern hemisphere latitudes) - OBSERVATION_DATE_START: The start of the sampling period (UTC) - OBSERVATION_DATE_END: The end of the sampling period (UTC). If sampling was carried out over multiple seasons (e.g. during January of 2002 and January of 2003), these dates will indicate the first and last dates (as if the sampling was carried out from 1-Jan-2002 to 31-Jan-2003) - ALTITUDE_MIN: The minimum altitude of the sampling region, in metres (if applicable) - ALTITUDE_MAX: The maximum altitude of the sampling region, in metres (if applicable) - DEPTH_MIN: The shallowest depth of the sampling, in metres (if applicable) - DEPTH_MAX: The deepest depth of the sampling, in metres (if applicable) - TAXON_NAME_ORIGINAL: The name of the taxon, as it appeared in the original source. - TAXON_NAME: The scientific name of the taxon (corrected, if necessary). - TAXON_COMMON_NAME: The common name of the taxon (from the WoRMS taxonomic register) - TAXON_APHIA_ID: The numeric identifier of the taxon in the WoRMS taxonomic register - TAXON_LIFE_STAGE: Life stage of the taxon. e.g. 'adult', 'chick', 'larva'. Values 'C1'-'C3' refer to calyptopis larval stages of euphausiids. 'F1'-'F6' refer to furcilia larval stages of euphausiids. 'N1'-'N6' refer to nauplius stages of crustaceans. 'Copepodite 1'-'Copepodite 6' refer to developmental stages of copepodites - TAXON_BREEDING_STAGE: Stage of the breeding season of the taxon, if applicable. e.g. 'lactating', 'weaning', 'chick rearing' - TAXON_SEX: Sex of the taxon. 'male', 'female', 'both', or 'unknown' - TAXON_SAMPLE_COUNT: The number of samples from which size and stable isotope measurements were made - TAXON_SIZE_MIN: The minimum size of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_SIZE_MAX: The maximum size of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_SIZE_MEAN: The mean size of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_SIZE_SD: The standard deviation of the size of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_SIZE_UNITS: The units of size. Current values 'mm', 'm' - TAXON_SIZE_NOTES: Notes on the size information, including a definition of what the size value represents (e.g. 'total length', 'standard length') - TAXON_MASS_MIN: The minimum mass of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_MASS_MAX: The maximum mass of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_MASS_MEAN: The mean mass of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_MASS_SD: The standard deviation of the mass of the individuals in the sample - TAXON_MASS_UNITS: The units of mass. e.g. 'g', 'kg' - TAXON_MASS_NOTES: Notes on the taxon mass information, including a definition of what the mass value represents (blank implies total body weight) - DELTA_13C_MEAN: The mean of the d13C values from the sample (permil;) - DELTA_13C_VARIABILITY_VALUE: The variability of the d13C values from the sample - DELTA_13C_VARIABILITY_TYPE: The variability type that the DELTA_13C_VARIABILITY_VALUE represents (currently 'SD' standard deviation, or 'SE' standard error) - DELTA_15N_MEAN: The mean of the d15N values from the sample (permil;) - DELTA_15N_VARIABILITY_VALUE: The variability of the d15N values from the sample - DELTA_15N_VARIABILITY_TYPE: The variability type that the DELTA_15N_VARIABILITY_VALUE represents (currently 'SD' standard deviation, or 'SE' standard error) - C_N_RATIO_MEAN: The mean of the C:N ratio values from the sample, expressed as a molar percentage - C_N_RATIO_VARIABILITY_VALUE: The variability of the C:N ratio values from the sample - C_N_RATIO_VARIABILITY_TYPE: The variability type that the C_N_RATIO_VARIABILITY_VALUE represents (currently 'SD' standard deviation, or 'SE' standard error) - ISOTOPES_CARBONATES_EXTRACTED: Were carbonates extracted from the samples prior to isotope analyses? 'Y', 'N', or 'U' (unknown) - ISOTOPES_LIPIDS_EXTRACTED: Were lipids extracted from the samples prior to isotope analyses? 'Y', 'N', or 'U' (unknown) - ISOTOPES_BODY_PART_USED: Which part of the organism was sampled? - QUALITY_FLAG: An indicator of the quality of this record. 'Q' indicates that the data are known to be questionable for some reason. The reason should be in the notes column. 'G' indicates good data - IS_SECONDARY_DATA: An indicator of whether this record was entered from its primary source, or from a secondary citation. 'Y' here indicates that the data actually came from another paper and were being reported in this paper as secondary data. Secondary data records are likely to be removed at a later date and replaced with information from the original source. - NOTES: Any other notes - LAST_MODIFIED: The date of last modification of this record
The database is comprised of folders of measurements of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) in ice, snow, slush, water and brine. Data were collated and localised from a variety of studies from 1995-2018. Data come from peer-reviewed publications, field-reports, data repositories and direct contributions by field-research teams. This data compilation was carried out under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research - ASPeCt program and the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR) working group on Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at the Sea-Ice Interfaces (WG-140). Each excel file represents one ice core, snow sample or water sample as a vertical profile with section depth ranges. The information of interest includes the upper limits and mean concentrations of DMS, particulate DMSP (DMSPp), dissolved DMSP (DMSPd) and total DMSP (DMSPt: DMSPd + DMSPp) measured in nanomoles per litre (nmol l-1), for the associated depths. Ancillary data such as nutrients, temperature and chlorophyl a concentrations are also included where possible, as well as descriptive data for the sampling sites, such as date, coordinates, type of ice, snow and ice thickness, core diameter, etc. Some of these studies are time series and some contain replicate cores at each station. To differentiate samples taken on the same date, voyage or location, the files are named accordingly: Date_CRUISE_sampletype_sampleID_variable.xlsx Example: 19971017_ASAC2100_ice_002_DMSP.xlsx Notes: • Files with unknown exact dates are named like so: *_19971000_* • Not all filenames contain sample IDs. Sample IDs will be in the form of a three-digit number, or in the case of files from *ISPOL_snow*, ‘Sxx’ or ‘Ixx’, which correspond to snow samples over slush or over solid ice respectively. Sample ID for *_JCR92-* files are the words ‘Gertie’, ‘Herbie’ or ‘Isolde’ which correspond to station names from Turner et al. (1995). • Files named with *_JARE48_ice_* have an extra column for combined measurements of DMS and DMSP, which begins in cell BG22. • Data in this database was either made available by authors or extracted directly from figures using GRABIT. • Data from files named with *_XVI_ice_* (Gambaro et al. 2004) were extracted using GRABIT, under the assumption that the figure 2 depth profiles related to ice cores and not under-ice water.
Information related to diet and energy flow is fundamental to a diverse range of Antarctic and Southern Ocean biological and ecosystem studies. This metadata record describes a database of such information being collated by the SCAR Expert Groups on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics (EG-ABI) and Birds and Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) to assist the scientific community in this work. It includes data related to diet and energy flow from conventional (e.g. gut content) and modern (e.g. molecular) studies, stable isotopes, fatty acids, and energetic content. It is a product of the SCAR community and open for all to participate in and use. Data have been drawn from published literature, existing trophic data collections, and unpublished data. The database comprises five principal tables, relating to (i) direct sampling methods of dietary assessment (e.g. gut, scat, and bolus content analyses, stomach flushing, and observed predation), (ii) stable isotopes, (iii) lipids, (iv) DNA-based diet assessment, and (v) energetics values. The schemas of these tables are described below, and a list of the sources used to populate the tables is provided with the data. A range of manual and automated checks were used to ensure that the entered data were as accurate as possible. These included visual checking of transcribed values, checking of row or column sums against known totals, and checking for values outside of allowed ranges. Suspicious entries were re-checked against original source. Notes on names: Names have been validated against the World Register of Marine Species (http://www.marinespecies.org/). For uncertain taxa, the most specific taxonomic name has been used (e.g. prey reported in a study as "Pachyptila sp." will appear here as "Pachyptila"; "Cephalopods" will appear as "Cephalopoda"). Uncertain species identifications (e.g. "Notothenia rossii?" or "Gymnoscopelus cf. piabilis") have been assigned the genus name (e.g. "Notothenia", "Gymnoscopelus"). Original names have been retained in a separate column to allow future cross-checking. WoRMS identifiers (APHIA_ID numbers) are given where possible. Grouped prey data in the diet sample table need to be handled with a bit of care. Papers commonly report prey statistics aggregated over groups of prey - e.g. one might give the diet composition by individual cephalopod prey species, and then an overall record for all cephalopod prey. The PREY_IS_AGGREGATE column identifies such records. This allows us to differentiate grouped data like this from unidentified prey items from a certain prey group - for example, an unidentifiable cephalopod record would be entered as Cephalopoda (the scientific name), with "N" in the PREY_IS_AGGREGATE column. A record that groups together a number of cephalopod records, possibly including some unidentifiable cephalopods, would also be entered as Cephalopoda, but with "Y" in the PREY_IS_AGGREGATE column. See the notes on PREY_IS_AGGREGATE, below. There are two related R packages that provide data access and functionality for working with these data. See the package home pages for more information: https://github.com/SCAR/sohungry and https://github.com/SCAR/solong. Data table schemas Sources data table - SOURCE_ID: The unique identifier of this source - DETAILS: The bibliographic details for this source (e.g. "Hindell M (1988) The diet of the royal penguin Eudyptes schlegeli at Macquarie Island. Emu 88:219–226") - NOTES: Relevant notes about this source – if it’s a published paper, this is probably the abstract - DOI: The DOI of the source (paper or dataset), in the form "10.xxxx/yyyy" Diet data table - RECORD_ID: The unique identifier of this record - SOURCE_ID: The identifier of the source study from which this record was obtained (see corresponding entry in the sources data table) - SOURCE_DETAILS, SOURCE_DOI: The details and DOI of the source, copied from the sources data table for convenience - ORIGINAL_RECORD_ID: The identifier of this data record in its original source, if it had one - LOCATION: The name of the location at which the data was collected - WEST: The westernmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values for western hemisphere longitudes) - EAST: The easternmost longitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values for western hemisphere longitudes) - SOUTH: The southernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values for southern hemisphere latitudes) - NORTH: The northernmost latitude of the sampling region, in decimal degrees (negative values for southern hemisphere latitudes) - ALTITUDE_MIN: The minimum altitude of the sampling region, in metres - ALTITUDE_MAX: The maximum altitude of the sampling region, in metres - DEPTH_MIN: The shallowest depth of the sampling, in metres - DEPTH_MAX: The deepest depth of the sampling, in metres - OBSERVATION_DATE_START: The start of the sampling period - OBSERVATION_DATE_END: The end of the sampling period. If sampling was carried out over multiple seasons (e.g. during January of 2002 and January of 2003), this will be the first and last dates (in this example, from 1-Jan-2002 to 31-Jan-2003) - PREDATOR_NAME: The name of the predator. This may differ from predator_name_original if, for example, taxonomy has changed since the original publication, if the original publication had spelling errors or used common (not scientific) names - PREDATOR_NAME_ORIGINAL: The name of the predator, as it appeared in the original source - PREDATOR_APHIA_ID: The numeric identifier of the predator in the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREDATOR_WORMS_RANK, PREDATOR_WORMS_KINGDOM, PREDATOR_WORMS_PHYLUM, PREDATOR_WORMS_CLASS, PREDATOR_WORMS_ORDER, PREDATOR_WORMS_FAMILY, PREDATOR_WORMS_GENUS: The taxonomic details of the predator, from the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREDATOR_GROUP_SOKI: A descriptive label of the group to which the predator belongs (currently used in the Southern Ocean Knowledge and Information wiki, http://soki.aq) - PREDATOR_LIFE_STAGE: Life stage of the predator, e.g. "adult", "chick", "larva", "juvenile". Note that if a food sample was taken from an adult animal, but that food was destined for a juvenile, then the life stage will be "juvenile" (this is common with seabirds feeding chicks) - PREDATOR_BREEDING_STAGE: Stage of the breeding season of the predator, if applicable, e.g. "brooding", "chick rearing", "nonbreeding", "posthatching" - PREDATOR_SEX: Sex of the predator: "male", "female", "both", or "unknown" - PREDATOR_SAMPLE_COUNT: The number of predators for which data are given. If (say) 50 predators were caught but only 20 analysed, this column will contain 20. For scat content studies, this will be the number of scats analysed - PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID: The identifier of the predator(s). If predators are being reported at the individual level (i.e. PREDATOR_SAMPLE_COUNT = 1) then PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID is the individual animal ID. Alternatively, if the data values being entered here are from a group of predators, then the PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID identifies that group of predators. PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID values are unique within a source (i.e. SOURCE_ID, PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID pairs are globally unique). Rows with the same SOURCE_ID and PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID values relate to the same predator individual or group of individuals, and so can be combined (e.g. for prey diversity analyses). Subsamples are indicated by a decimal number S.nnn, where S is the parent PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID, and nnn (001-999) is the subsample number. Studies will sometimes report detailed prey information for a large sample, but then report prey information for various subsamples of that sample (e.g. broken down by predator sex, or sampling season). In the simplest case, the diet of each predator will be reported only once in the study, and in this scenario the PREDATOR_SAMPLE_ID values will simply be 1 to N (for N predators). - PREDATOR_SIZE_MIN, PREDATOR_SIZE_MAX, PREDATOR_SIZE_MEAN, PREDATOR_SIZE_SD: The minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of the size of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_SIZE_UNITS: The units of size (e.g. "mm") - PREDATOR_SIZE_NOTES: Notes on the predator size information, including a definition of what the size value represents (e.g. "total length", "standard length") - PREDATOR_MASS_MIN, PREDATOR_MASS_MAX, PREDATOR_MASS_MEAN, PREDATOR_MASS_SD: The minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of the mass of the predators in the sample - PREDATOR_MASS_UNITS: The units of mass (e.g. "g", "kg") - PREDATOR_MASS_NOTES: Notes on the predator mass information, including a definition of what the mass value represents - PREY_NAME: The scientific name of the prey item (corrected, if necessary) - PREY_NAME_ORIGINAL: The name of the prey item, as it appeared in the original source PREY_APHIA_ID: The numeric identifier of the prey in the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREY_WORMS_RANK, PREY_WORMS_KINGDOM, PREY_WORMS_PHYLUM, PREY_WORMS_CLASS, PREY_WORMS_ORDER, PREY_WORMS_FAMILY, PREY_WORMS_GENUS: The taxonomic details of the prey, from the WoRMS taxonomic register - PREY_GROUP_SOKI: A descriptive label of the group to which the prey belongs (currently used in the Southern Ocean Knowledge and Information wiki, http://soki.aq) - PREY_IS_AGGREGATE: "Y" indicates that this row is an aggregation of other rows in this data source. For example, a study might give a number of individual squid species records, and then an overall squid record that encompasses the individual records. Use the PREY_IS_AGGREGATE information to avoid double-counting during analyses - PREY_LIFE_STAGE: Life stage of the prey (e.g. "adult", "chick", "larva") - PREY_SEX: The sex of the prey ("male", "female", "both", or "unknown"). Note that this is generally "unknown" - PREY_SAMPLE_COUNT: The number of prey individuals from which size and mass measurements were made (note: this is NOT the total number of individuals of this prey type, unless all individuals in the sample were measured) - PREY_SIZE_MIN, PREY_SIZE_MAX, PREY_SIZE_MEAN, PREY_SIZE_SD: The minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of the size of the prey in the sample - PREY_SIZE_UNITS: The units of size (e.g. "mm", "cm", "m") - PREY_SIZE_NOTES: Notes on the prey size information, including a definition of what the size value represents (e.g. "total length", "standard length") - PREY_MASS_MIN, PREY_MASS_MAX, PREY_MASS_MEAN, PREY_MASS_SD: The minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of the mass of the prey in the sample - PREY_MASS_UNITS: The units of mass (e.g. "mg", "g", "kg") - PREY_MASS_NOTES: Notes on the prey mass information, including a definition of what the mass value represents - FRACTION_DIET_BY_WEIGHT: The fraction by weight of the predator diet that this prey type made up (e.g. if Euphausia superba contributed 50% of the total mass of prey items, this value would be 0.5). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as "trace" or sometimes "less than 0.1%". These have been entered as -999 - FRACTION_DIET_BY_PREY_ITEMS: The fraction (by number) of prey items that this prey type made up (e.g. if 1000 Euphausia superba were found out of a total of 2000 prey items, this value would be 0.5). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as "trace" or sometimes "less than 0.1%". These have been entered as -999 - FRACTION_OCCURRENCE: The number of times this prey item occurred in a predator sample, as a fraction of the number of non-empty samples (e.g. if Euphausia superba occurred in half of the non-empty stomachs examined, this value would be 0.5). Empty stomachs are ignored for the purposes of calculating fraction of occurrence. - FRACTION_OCCURRENCE: The number of times this prey item occurred in a predator sample, as a fraction of the number of non-empty samples (e.g. if Euphausia superba occurred in half of the non-empty stomachs examined, this value would be 0.5). Empty stomachs are ignored for the purposes of calculating fraction of occurrence. For gut content analyses (and any other study types where "no prey" can occur in a sample), the fraction of empty stomachs may also be reported, using prey_name "None". Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as "trace" or sometimes "less than 0.1%". These have been entered as -999 - PREY_ITEMS_INCLUDED: Which prey items were examined? For example, if the data came from a stomach contents study and all stomach contents were counted, this will be "all". Conversely, if only upper squid beaks were counted, this will be "upper beaks" - ACCUMULATED_HARD_PARTS_TREATMENT: Only applicable to methods where hard diet remains can accumulate over time (e.g. stomach content of seabirds). How were accumulated hard parts dealt with? Some stomach content studies try to avoid over-estimation of hard parts by discarding anything other than fresh hard parts. Current values here are "included", "excluded", and "unknown" - QUALITATIVE_DIETARY_IMPORTANCE: A qualitative description of the dietary importance of this prey item (e.g. from comments about certain prey in the discussion text of an article), if numeric values have not been given. Current values are "none", "incidental", "minor", "major", "almost exclusive", "exclusive" - CONSUMPTION_RATE_MIN, CONSUMPTION_RATE_MAX, CONSUMPTION_RATE_MEAN, CONSUMPTION_RATE_SD: The minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of the consumption rate of this prey item - CONSUMPTION_RATE_UNITS: The units of consumption rate (e.g. "kg/day") - CONSUMPTION_RATE_NOTES: Notes about the consumption rate estimates - IDENTIFICATION_METHOD: How this dietary information was gathered. A single study may have used multiple methods, in which case the IDENTIFICATION_METHOD may contain multiple values (separated by commas). Current values include "scat content" (contents of scats), "stomach flushing" (physical sampling of the stomach contents by flushing the contents out with water), "stomach content" (physical sampling of the stomach contents from a dead animal), "regurgitate content" (physical sampling of the contents of forced or spontaneous regurgitations), "observed predation", "bolus content" (physical sampling of the contents of boluses), "nest detritus", "gut pigment", "unknown" - QUALITY_FLAG: An indicator of the quality of this record. "Q" indicates that the data are known to be questionable for some reason. The reason should be in the notes column. "G" indicates good data - IS_SECONDARY_DATA: An indicator of whether this record was entered from its primary source, or from a secondary citation. "Y" here indicates that the data actually came from another paper and were being reported in this paper as secondary data. Secondary data records are likely to be removed at a later date and replaced with information from the original source - NOTES: Any other notes - LAST_MODIFIED: The date of last modification of this record Isotopes data table (Columns that are already described in the "Diet" schema above are not included here) - TAXON_*: As for "PREDATOR_*" in the diet data table - TAXON_SAMPLE_ID: The identifier of the animal(s). If animals are being reported at the individual level (i.e. TAXON_SAMPLE_COUNT = 1) then TAXON_SAMPLE_ID is the individual animal ID. Alternatively, if the data values being entered here are from a group of animals, then the TAXON_SAMPLE_ID identifies that group of animals. TAXON_SAMPLE_ID values are unique within a source. Rows with the same SOURCE_ID and TAXON_SAMPLE_ID values relate to the same individual(s), but may represent different processing methods, different physical samples (see PHYSICAL_SAMPLE_ID) or different analytical replicates (see ANALYTICAL_REPLICATE_ID). In the simplest case, the isotopes of each animal will be reported at the individual-animal level and based on only one processing method, and in this scenario the TAXON_SAMPLE_ID values will simply be 1 to N (for N individual animals) - PHYSICAL_SAMPLE_ID: Where multiple samples were taken from one individual animal, this column will identify the samples. This will be blank kif only one physical sample was taken from each TAXON_SAMPLE_ID, or if the results were aggregated for reporting - ANALYTICAL_REPLICATE_ID: Where the lab analysis was replicated on each physical sample (i.e. multiple sub-samples of each sample were run through the machine), this column will identify the replicates. This column will be blank if the lab analysis for each PHYSICAL_SAMPLE_ID was not replicated, or if the results were aggregated for reporting - ANALYTICAL_REPLICATE_COUNT: If lab analyses were replicated but the data here represent the aggregated results over the replicates, this column will indicate the number of replicates. The ANALYTICAL_REPLICATE_ID column in this case will be blank, because the data pertain to multiple replicates - SAMPLES_WERE_POOLED: If "Y", multiple physical samples were pooled for analysis (likely because of a minimum required volume or mass of matter for the analytical process) - MEASUREMENT_NAME: the name of the quantity being reported ("delta_15N", "C:N mass ratio", "standard length", "wet weight") - MEASUREMENT_MIN_VALUE, MEASUREMENT_MAX_VALUE, MEASUREMENT_MEAN_VALUE, MEASUREMENT_VARIABILITY_VALUE: The minimum, maximum, mean, and variability of the measured values - MEASUREMENT_VARIABILITY_TYPE: the type of variability reported ("SD", "SE") - MEASUREMENT_UNITS: the units of measurement ("per mil", "mm", "mg") - MEASUREMENT_METHOD: a description of the measurement method - ISOTOPES_CARBONATES_TREATMENT: How were carbonates treated in the sample processing? Currently "acidification" (acid used to remove carbonates from samples), "none" (no carbonate treatment), or "unknown" - ISOTOPES_LIPIDS_TREATMENT: How were lipids treated in the sample processing? Currently either "chemical delipidation" (where lipids were removed chemically), "mathematical correction" (where a mathematical model was used to correct for the effects of lipids), "none" (for no lipid treatment), or "unknown" - ISOTOPES_PRETREATMENT: Any other pretreatment (free text) - ISOTOPES_ARE_ADJUSTED: "Y" here indicates that the isotope values have been adjusted in some way not already described in the other columns (e.g. values derived from blood samples might be adjusted to make them comparable to tissue sample values) - ISOTOPES_ADJUSTMENT_NOTES: if ISOTOPES_ARE_ADJUSTED, notes on the adjustment applied (e.g. "Adjusted values are corrected to represent muscle tissue") - ISOTOPES_BODY_PART_USED: Which part of the organism was sampled? Lipids data table (Columns that are already described in the "Diet" or "Isotopes" schemas above are not included here) - MEASUREMENT_NAME: the name of the quantity being reported ("lipid content", "monounsaturated fatty alcohol content", "18:1n-7 content", "wet weight") - MEASUREMENT_CLASS: where the measurement could apply to e.g. either fatty acids or fatty alcohols, this column is used to clarify (e.g. "fatty acid", "fatty alcohol", "triacylglycerol fatty acid", "wax ester fatty acid") Energetics data table All of the columns in this data table have been described in the schemas above. DNA diet data table (Columns that are already described in the schemas above are not included here) - SEQUENCES_TOTAL: The total sequence count for this predator sample - DNA_CONCENTRATION: Sample DNA concentration if recorded, in nM/µl - FRACTION_SEQUENCES_BY_PREY: The fraction of SEQUENCES_TOTAL that this prey type made up (e.g. if Euphausia superba contributed 50% of the total sequences of prey items, this value would be 0.5). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as "trace" or sometimes "less than 0.1%". These have been entered as -999 - FRACTION_OCCURRENCE: The fraction of predator samples in which this prey item occurred (e.g. if Euphausia superba occurred in half of the scats collected, this value would be 0.5). Note: many papers represent very small dietary contributions as "trace" or sometimes "less than 0.1%". These have been entered as -999 - SAMPLE_TYPE: Sample type that the DNA was extracted from, e.g. "scat", "stomach content" - DNA_EXTRACTION_METHOD: The method used to extract DNA (e.g. "DNA stool kit", "Maxwell robot", "salting out procedure") - ANALYSIS_TYPE: e.g. "High-throughput sequencing", "cloning", "PCR amplification only" - SEQUENCING_PLATFORM: e.g. "Ion torrent", "Miseq" - TARGET_GENE: The gene area targeted, e.g. "16S", "12S", "18S", "CO1" - TARGET_FOOD_GROUP: For the 18S region, this might be "all eukaryotes"; for 16S or 12S, this might be "fish" or "vertebrates" - FORWARD_PRIMER: The sequence of the forward primer used, in the 5'-to-3' direction - REVERSE_PRIMER: The sequence of the reverse primer used, in the 5'-to-3' direction - BLOCKING_PRIMER: The sequence of the blocking primer if used, in the 5'-to-3' direction - PRIMER_SOURCE_ID: The ID of the paper reference for where the primer was first designed. This reference will likely include the PCR conditions, annealing temperature and alignment of the primers - PRIMER_SOURCE_DETAILS, PRIMER_SOURCE_DOI: The details and DOI of the PRIMER_SOURCE_ID, copied from the sources data table for convenience - SEQUENCE_SOURCE_ID: The database that contains the sequence data, e.g. "Dryad", "GenBank" - SEQUENCE_SOURCE_DETAILS, SEQUENCE_SOURCE_DOI: The details and DOI of the SEQUENCE_SOURCE_ID, copied from the sources data table for convenience - SEQUENCE: DNA sequence for OTU or OTU cluster - OTHER_METHODS_APPLIED: Were there any other methods applied to the sample to either improve amplification or block sequences?