Metadata details

ASAC_1187_megaherbs

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).

Citation
Whinam, J., Selkirk, P., Downing, A.J. and Hull, B. (2006) Return of the megaherbs: plant colonisation of derelict ANARE station buildings on sub-Antarctic Heard Island, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Division - doi:10.4225/15/5536FF87A89B1, Accessed: 2026-06-24
Title
Return of the megaherbs: plant colonisation of derelict ANARE station buildings on sub-Antarctic Heard Island
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/5536FF87A89B1
Created Date
2006-09-11
Revision Date
2024-09-23
Expected Date of Data Release
2006-09-11
Data Version
1
Parent record
None

Datasets and documents

    Related links

    Description

    From the abstract of the referenced paper:

    Buildings were constructed and artefacts left behind on sub-Antarctic Heard Island, associated with Antarctic research expeditions since 1926. Both bryophytes and vascular plants are colonising many parts of the now derelict buildings. On these structures and artefacts, the authors recorded four species of vascular plants out of the 11 that occur on Heard Island and nine species of mosses out of the 37 recorded from Heard Island. The vascular plants species most frequently recorded colonising structures and artefacts was Pringlea antiscorbutica (288 occurrences), with the area colonised varying from 0.3 cm squared to 430.0 cm squared. Mueleriella crassifolia was the moss species that was most frequently recorded (14 occurrences), colonising areas from 2.1 cm squared to 12.9 cm squared. The highest number of bryophyte species (seven) was recorded on the stone and cement of the 'water tank'. Pringlea antiscorbutica, Poa cookii, Azorella selago, Muelleriella crassifolia, Bryum dichotomum, Dicranoweisia brevipes and Schistidium apocarpum are all expected to continue to colonise the ANARE ruins, as well as areas that have become available since building removal and also possible areas bared by further degradation.

    This work was completed as part of ASAC project 1187 (ASAC_1187).

    Data from this experiment are stored in an excel spreadsheet in csv format.

    The fields in this dataset are:

    Species
    Stem length (mm)
    Building
    Date built (year)
    Growth rate (mm per year)

    Show more...

    Quality

    See the attached paper for further information.

    The excel spreadsheet was manually entered from a paper copy of the data. A scanned pdf copy of the original paper copy of the data has been included in the download file.

    Access

    A pdf copy of the referenced paper and an excel spreadsheet of data are available for download from the provided URLs. A pdf copy of a scan of the original data sheet is also available for download.

    Temporal Coverages

    Spatial Coverages

    Latitude

    Northernmost:
    -52.94843
    Southernmost:
    -53.20768

    Longitude

    Westernmost:
    73.21893
    Easternmost:
    73.85284

    Science Keywords

    Additional Keywords

    • Heard Island
    • building
    • megaherbs
    • species
    • stem length
    • growth rate
    • ANARE
    • date built

    Locations

    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
    • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

    Platforms

    • FIELD INVESTIGATION

    Instruments

    • VISUAL OBSERVATIONS

    Researchers

    • whinam, jennifer (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
    • selkirk, patricia (TECHNICAL CONTACT)
    • downing, a (TECHNICAL CONTACT)
    • hull, bruce (TECHNICAL CONTACT)
    • connell, dave (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=ASAC_1187_megaherbs when using these data.

    Project

      ISO Topic

      • ENVIRONMENT
      • BIOTA

      Dataset Language

      • English

      Orignating Centre

      • Australian Antarctic Division

      Dataset Progress

      • COMPLETE

      IDN Node

      • CEOS
      • AMD
      • AMD/AU

      Publications

      • Whinam, J., Selkirk, P.M., Downing, A.J., Hull, B. (2004) Return of the megaherbs: plant colonisation of derelict ANARE station buildings on sub-Antarctic Heard Island., Polar Record, 40(214), 235-243

      Metadata Revision History

        2010-07-26 - record updated by Dave Connell to change URL Content Type. 2015-04-21 - record updated by Dave Connell - basic updates. 2024-09-23 - record updated by Dave Connell to correct the spatial coverage.

      Creative Commons License