DOI: 10.5285/f41dfd1d-b903-4179-9819-f59f3c121d02
title: Macrobenthic Cumacea collected by epibenthic sledge from the Amundsen Sea in March 2008 and from the Prince Gustav Channel and Duse Bay, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula in March 2018

description: In 2008 RRS James Clark Ross investigated the marine benthic biodiversity in Amundsen Sea and in 2018 the marine benthic biodiversity of the Prince Gustav Channel (PGC) area and the macrobenthic cumacean fauna (Peracarida, Crustacea) collected by epibenthic sledge (EBS) has been assessed for species richness, abundance and assemblage composition. In total 4431 cumacean specimens assigned to 58 morphospecies and 5 families were identified. To set the cumacean dataset into a wider context, published cumacean species richness and abundance data from EBS collected stations in the Magellan Region and Southern Ocean (Rehm et al 2007, Muehlenhardt-Siegel 1999, Cordoba & San Vincente 2009) were added. This dataset provides data for 1) Amundsen Sea and PGC EBS locations, 2) Amundsen Sea and PGC EBS cumacean abundances, 3) Magellan Region and Southern Ocean EBS cumacean standardised 1000 m trawl length abundances (175 - 3500 m depth). Funding for the expeditions and KL was provided by NERC NC Science for the BAS core project BIOPEARL and for NERC urgency grant NE/R012296/1 'Benthic biodiversity under Antarctic ice-shelves - baseline assessment of the seabed exposed by the 2017 calving of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf'. Funding for DD was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant Br1121/51-1.
description: The data were collected during expeditions JR179 in 2008 and JR17003a in 2018. The EBS holds an epi-and a suprabenthic netsampler (Brenke, 2005). Each of these nets has an opening of 100x33 cm and net mesh size of 500 µm. The cod ends are equipped with net-buckets containing 300 µm mesh windows. On deployment 1.5 times cable length to water depth were laid out and then EBS was trawled for 10 minutes on the seabed at a 1 knot for deployments in 500 m to 1500 m. Once on the deck, the content of the samplers was immediately fixed in 96% undenaturated and pre-cooled (at -20 °C) ethanol. Samples were stored in a -20 °C freezer for at least 48 h to reduce degradation of DNA for subsequent genetic studies. During this time, samples were gently rolled every three to six hours. Ethanol was changed once for all sub-fractions. The haul distances were calculated based on equation (4) in Brenke (2005). For comparison between stations abundance data were standardised to 1000 m2 trawled area. In the laboratory, samples were initially sorted under a stereomicroscope to class level and, whenever possible, classified to morphospecies level. Juvenile specimens were assigned to family or genus level. Live specimen numbers were counted for abundance data based on undamaged individuals and heads while tails (without head) were not taken into account.
description: British Antarctic Survey Epi-benthic Sledge was built based on the EBS design by Brenke (2005), further details can be found at http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L22/current/NETT0182/.
description: Standard protocols for EBS deployment were followed. Data entry of EBS deployment data was linked to vessel's USBL system.