Metadata details

AAS_3217_Davis_STP_StableIsotopes

All scientific data collected by the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) are eventually described in the Catalogue of Australian Antarctic and Subantarctic Metadata (CAASM). CAASM can be used to search through AAp data descriptions, and it also provides links to access publicly available datasets, which can either be immediately downloaded or obtained from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC).

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Citation
Gillies, C., Stark, J. and Johnstone, G. (2018) Stable isotope data from marine sediment and invertebrates from Davis Station 2009/10, Ver. 2, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/5a7ba7392cd6b, Accessed: 2026-05-13
Title
Stable isotope data from marine sediment and invertebrates from Davis Station 2009/10
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/5a7ba7392cd6b
Created Date
2018-01-12
Revision Date
2025-06-04
Parent record
DAVIS_STP_Biota

Datasets and documents

    Related links

    Description

    This metadata record contains an Excel file containing stable isotope analysis data of marine sediments and invertebrates collected at Davis Station from December 2009 to March 2010. Refer to Gillies et al. 2013 for sampling and analysis details.

    Gillies C.L., Stark J.S., Johnstone G.J., Smith S.D.A., 2013. Establishing a food web model for coastal Antarctic benthic communities: a case study from the Vestfold Hills, Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 478: 27 – 41.

    Also refer to the Davis STP reports lodged under metadata record Davis_STP for methods and result details.

    Background of the Davis STP project

    Refer to the Davis STP reports lodged under metadata record Davis_STP.

    From the abstract of the referenced paper:

    Shallow-water benthic communities throughout coastal Antarctica share many species and are governed by similar physico-oceanographic processes. This suggests community structure and function may be similar among communities despite being geographically separated by up to 15 degrees of latitude and 18000 km of coastline. To test this theory, we developed a food web model using stable isotopes (d13C, d15N) for the high-latitude Vestfold Hills shallow-water benthic community and compared it to the isotopic food web model developed for the Windmill Islands, located over 1000 km away. For the Vestfold Hills food web, carbon sources were generally well separated by d13C, and lower-order consumers could be grouped according to their feeding guild and main dietary sources as determined by d13C and d15N. Higher-order consumers occupied the full range of d13C ratios and had similar d15N values, although predators were weakly, but significantly, enriched in d15N compared to scavenger/predators and omnivores. When comparing with the Windmill Islands food web, we found similar d13C ratios for several co-occurring carbon sources and consumers, whilst the d15N ratios in consumers from the Vestfold Hills were consistently enriched compared to those from the Windmill Islands by 1 to 2‰. The relative positions of feeding guilds on the d13C and d15N planes were similar for both food webs. These results suggest there is considerable merit in developing a representative food web model for Antarctic shallow-water communities. Such a model would provide a trophic benchmark against which modification in these communities brought about by climate change or other human impacts could be compared.

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    Quality

    The original datasheet was reformatted to fit IPT Biodiversity.AQ standard. The new datasheet "DavisStationStableIsotopes.csv" provides the dataset ID, event ID, recordNumber, occurrenceID, eventDate, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, continent, occurrenceStatus, basisOfRecord. The taxonomical organisation is provided to the lowest taxonomical rank that could be determined, after matched in WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species).

    Access

    These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

    Copies of some of the referenced publications are available for download to AAD staff only.

    Temporal Coverages

    Spatial Coverages

    Latitude

    Northernmost:
    -68.35465
    Southernmost:
    -68.91891

    Longitude

    Westernmost:
    77.7063
    Easternmost:
    78.95874

    Science Keywords

    Additional Keywords

    • MARINE FOOD WEB
    • MARINE INVERTEBRATES
    • STABLE ISOTOPES

    Locations

    • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
    • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

    Platforms

    • FIELD SURVEYS
    • FIELD INVESTIGATION

    Instruments

    • SEDIMENT TRAPS

    Researchers

    • gillies, chris (INVESTIGATOR)
    • stark, jonathan (INVESTIGATOR)
    • johnstone, glenn (TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)

    Use Constraints

    This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

    Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_3217_Davis_STP_StableIsotopes when using these data.

    Creative Commons License