Here we present physico-chemical data collected during two research cruises conducted to and across the Ross Sea, Antarctica in the summer of 2018 (February-March) and 2019 (January-February). The dataset includes measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, par and transmissivity obtained with a Sea-Bird Electronics (SBE) 911plus CTD. The CTD sensor was configured with SBE 3plus, SBE 4, and SBE 43 dual sensors for the parameters above, in addition to a seapoint fluorescence sensor, and a photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) sensor (Biospherical Instruments QCP‐2300L‐HP). These data were used to provide oceanographic context to DNA metabarcoding analysis of 18S rRNA V4 region that was carried out on DNA samples collected in parallel to nutrient and chlorophyll-a samples. Fastq samples from DNA metabarcoding analysis and the associated metadata (including nutrients, Chlorophyll-a, and size-fractionated chlorophyll-a) were deposited to GenBank under project numbers PRJNA756172 (2018 cruise) and PRJNA974160 (2019 cruise). The study resulting from this analysis has been submitted to Limnology and Oceanography. RELATED PUBLICATION: Cristi, A., Law, C.S., Pinkerton, M., Lopes dos Santos, A., Safi, K. and Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, A. (2024). Environmental driving forces and phytoplankton diversity across the Ross Sea region during a summer–autumn transition. Limnol Oceanogr. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12526

The data set contains water temperature, salinity, and oxygen taken by CTD during three hydrographic sections perpendicular to the slope in the Western Ross Sea between Cape Adare and the Drygalski Trough. Data are in NetCDF. RELATED PUBLICATION: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81793-5 GET DATA: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0219916

Data includes estimates of abundance of seaweed taxa on the seafloor across the Northern Victoria Land coast, Ross Sea, Antarctica. This includes: - Metadata of video transects - Seaweed density across transects - Modelled outputs of light attenuation across sites. Descriptions: - "Antarctic_Seaweed_Metadata_TAN2101_TAN2302_Dryad.xlsx" - Metadata of video transects, date and time, locations, gear, depth, distance covered. - "Antarctic_Seaweeds_TAN2101_TAN2302.csv" - Density of seaweed functional groups across video transects - "Light_transects_TAN2021_TAN2302.csv" - Outputs of light modelling for seafloor regions of the Ross Sea - "Antarctic_Seaweed_RScript_Tait_etal_2024.txt" - R sripts used to plot, analyse and model the above datasets Further details are provided at: Tait, L.W., Chin, C., Nelson, W. et al. Deep-living and diverse Antarctic seaweeds as potentially important contributors to global carbon fixation. Commun Earth Environ 5, 205 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01362-2 GET DATA: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w6m905qwz