| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: Gammarid, Isopod, gastropod faunas identified at the Australian Museum. Remaining faunas identified by J. Stark. Marine soft-sediment assemblages were sampled from shallow (5 - 35m) nearshore regions around Casey Station, Windmill Islands, East Antarctica in winter 1998, using a van-Veen grab (surface area 20 x 25 cm). Samples were sieved through a 1 mm mesh and sorted to species where possible. A hierarchical, spatially nested sampling design was used with locations (km's apart), sites (100s of metres apart). Two potentially impacted, polluted locations (Shannon Bay - adjacent to a sewage outfall; and Brown Bay - adjacent to an old garbage tip) were compared with a control location in O'Brien Bay. Data were analysed using both multivariate and univariate statistical methods. Significant differences in assemblages were found between locations and between sites within locations. Significant differences in the abundances of taxa at several taxonomic levels (species, family, order, phylum) were also found at both spatial scales. Significant differences were also detected between the polluted and control locations. These samples were collected as part of a larger program examining human impacts in marine benthic assemblages at Casey Station. These samples were used in an analysis of temporal changes in soft-sediment assemblages at Casey. A total of 30 grab samples were collected in this survey. The fields in this dataset are: Location Site Date Site/Replicate Species
|
|---|