Kelp Holdfast Species Recovery After Antarctic Oil Spill

Species abundance matrices document the recovery of intertidal benthic communities seven years after the Nella Dan oil spill at Macquarie Island. The dataset contains counts of individuals per species from holdfast samples collected in 1988 and 1994. It was produced by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC) and last updated in 1995.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in species abundance by comparing the 'Year' and 'Species' columns between 1988 and 1994 samples.
• Assess spatial variation in oil spill impact by comparing 'Site' codes like Sandy Bay (SB) and Buckles Bay (BB) against control sites.
• Model community recovery metrics using the species-abundance matrix structure to calculate diversity indices for each site and year.

Strengths

• Data spans a 7-year post-spill recovery period, enabling longitudinal analysis.
• Includes expanded spatial coverage with more sites than prior related studies (ASAC_250, ASAC_672).
• Provides a standard species-abundance matrix, a foundational format for ecological analysis.

Limitations

• Exact row and column counts are unknown, limiting assessment of dataset scale.
• Data is temporally stale, with the last collection in 1994 and no updates for 30 years.
• Sample size per site and replicate is unspecified, potentially affecting statistical power.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC), ASAC Project 1003.

Collection Method

Field sampling of kelp holdfast macrofaunal communities, with individuals counted and identified to species.

Time Range

1988, 1994

Freshness

1995-03-31

Geography

Macquarie Island, specific bays including Sandy Bay, Buckles Bay, and Garden Cove.