Abundance of benthic organisms close to the Fourcade glacier front at Potter Cove, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, from December 2009 to February 2010, with links to photographs ...

• Main Authors: Lagger, Cristian, Servetto, Natalia, Torre, Luciana, Sahade, Ricardo José
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2017
• Subjects: Optional event label; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; Depth, bathymetric; DEPTH, sediment/rock; Cnemidocarpa; Molgula; Corella; Bryozoa; Porifera; Asteroidea; Gastropoda; Serolis; Sycozoa sigillinoides; Ctenophora; Laternula; Actiniaria; Comment; File name; Uniform resource locator/link to file; Counting; Impact of climate induced glacier melt on marine coastal systems, Antarctica IMCOAST/IMCONet; Austral; South Shetland Islands; Potter Cove; Fourcade; Fourcade Glacier; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.879335; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.879335

The study was conducted close to the Fourcade glacier front (<80 m), in the new ice-free areas at 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 m depths. Photographic surveys were undertaken by SCUBA diving during the austral summer from December 2009 to February 2010. A high definition SONY SR-12 digital camera housed in an Amphibico case and fitted with 2 led lights was used to take the pictures. An aluminum frame (40 x 30 cm) was attached to the housing and used to quantify the sampled area. At each depth profile, photographs were randomly taken along the selected isobaths. A total of 45 0.12 m² images were taken at each depth, resulting in a total area of ~30 m². Photographs were projected onto grids of 100 points and those underlying each organism were counted to estimate percentage cover and bare substratum per square meter. Animals in each photograph were counted (abundance) and the total number divided by the area sampled to estimate densities. Abundance and percentage cover were analyzed from the photographs with ...