Antarctic Mobile Epifauna Recruitment on Hard Substratum Tiles

160 tiles were deployed in a manipulative field experiment to examine mobile epifauna recruitment at three potentially impacted and two control locations in Antarctic bays. The dataset contains 40 samples collected from eight tiles per location 15 months after initial deployment. Data was collected by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre and last updated in February 1999.

Use Cases

• Compare epifauna recruitment rates between impacted and control locations using the location classification.
• Analyze spatial variation in recruitment using the nested tile deployment design across five sites.
• Model recruitment success based on tile orientation (upper vs. lower side) and sampling time.
• Correlate mobile epifauna data with separate sessile epifauna records for a complete community assessment.

Strengths

• Data from a controlled field experiment with 160 deployed tiles.
• Spatially nested design across five distinct geographic locations.
• Specific sampling timeline: first collection 15 months post-deployment.

Limitations

• Small sample size of 40 total data records.
• Data is from a single sampling time point, limiting temporal analysis.
• Geographic scope is limited to three specific Antarctic bays.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC), linked to ASAC 1100.

Collection Method

Field experiment using hard-substratum tiles deployed in a spatially nested design.

Time Range

Sampling occurred 15 months after initial tile deployment.

Freshness

Data is historical, last updated in 1999.

Geography

Antarctic coastal waters: Brown Bay, Shannon Bay (potentially impacted), and O'Brien Bay (control).