Sterols in Antarctic Marine Sediment and Fauna Near Davis Station, 2009/10

Sewage contamination was detected up to 1.5 km from Davis Station, Antarctica. This dataset contains GC-MS profiles of C27 and C29 sterols from near-shore marine sediments and indigenous fauna faeces, used to assess human sewage contamination. The data was collected during the 2009/10 season and contributed by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre.

Use Cases

• Developing a likelihood assessment matrix for human sewage contamination based on C29 sterol profiles.
• Distinguishing human faecal contamination from indigenous fauna inputs based on sterol isomer presence.
• Identifying in situ production of sterols in high organic matter sediments remote from pollution sources.
• Assessing the spatial extent of wastewater impact from research stations in the Antarctic environment.

Strengths

• Includes data from sites both proximal and distal to a known wastewater outfall for comparison.
• Examines faeces from indigenous seals and penguins to account for non-human sources.
• Presents a novel polyphasic likelihood assessment matrix for environmental monitoring.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last updated 2010-04-01 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

AU_AADC (Australian Antarctic Data Centre)

Collection Method

GC-MS analysis of sediment and faecal samples.

Time Range

2009/10 season

Freshness

Last updated 2010-04-01 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Near-shore marine environment at Davis Station, Antarctica