Epiphytic diatom community structure and richness is determined by macroalgal host and location in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) ...

• Main Authors: Burfeid-Castellanos, Andrea, Martín-Martín, Rafael P., Kloster, Michael, Angulo-Preckler, Carlos, Avila, Conxita, Beszteri, Bánk
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Deception Island; Ice Shelf; Livingston Island; South Shetland Islands
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ngf1vhhsm; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.ngf1vhhsm

The marine waters around the South Shetland Islands are paramount in the primary production of this Antarctic ecosystem. With the increasing effects of climate change and the annual retreat of the ice shelf, the importance of macroalgae and their diatom epiphytes in primary production also increases. The relationships and interactions between these organisms have scarcely been studied in Antarctica, and even less in the volcanic ecosystem of Deception Island, which can be seen as a natural proxy of climate change in Antarctica because of its vulcanism, and the open marine system of Livingston Island. In this study, we investigated the composition of the diatom communities in the context of their macroalgal hosts and different environmental factors. We used a gentle non-acidic method for diatom digestion, followed by an established slide scanner protocol to increase transparency and repeatability of diatom identification. The results showed that epiphytic diatom species richness was higher on Deception Island ... : Macroalgal samples frozen, diatoms extracted with bleach, dripped onto slides and mounted with Naphrax. Slides were imaged with a slide scanner Olympus VS 200. Images can be found in PANGAEA ( doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.925913 ). Diatoms were identified on a web-based platform called Biigle 2.0 (biigle.de), where possible 500 cells were identified. Diatom inventories result from those identifications. Biigle virtual slides are available upon request to the corresponding author under the following link: https://biigle.de/projects/362. R scripts are included and were prepared in RStudio (Version 1.2.5019). ...