Vestfold Hills Antarctic Benthic Habitat Mapping

High-resolution multibeam and satellite-derived bathymetry data map seafloor geomorphology in the shallow coastal waters of Antarctica's Vestfold Hills. This physical framework provides a baseline for understanding benthic community distribution, particularly macroalgae and invertebrate habitats vulnerable to sea ice-driven regime shifts. The data was presented at the 2023 POLAR 2018 A SCAR & IASC Conference.

Use Cases

• Establishing baseline habitat extent for monitoring ecosystem change based on seafloor geomorphology.
• Identifying potential macroalgae colonization zones in areas with reduced sea ice cover.
• Guiding biological field studies to detect regime shifts from invertebrate to macroalgae-dominated communities.
• Filling bathymetric data gaps in very shallow or ice-covered areas using multispectral satellite imagery.

Strengths

• Integrates high-resolution multibeam data with satellite-derived bathymetry for comprehensive spatial coverage.
• Provides a physical framework explicitly linked to understanding benthic habitats and community distribution.
• Based on a detailed prior study in the Vestfold Hills region, cited with a specific DOI (10.1111/gcb.12337).

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: no row counts, column names, file sizes, license, or author are provided.
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-05-14 appears to be a future date, indicating potential metadata errors.
• Descriptions are repeated verbatim across platform entries, suggesting automated replication rather than curated enrichment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

High-resolution multibeam surveys and bathymetry derived from multispectral satellite imagery.

Freshness

2026-05-14 04:08:19.730541

Geography

Shallow coastal waters of the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica.