Biodiversity Data Journal : Data Paper (Biosciences)
PDF
Data Paper (Biosciences)
Sea spiders (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from ten recent research expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea - data
expand article infoJamie Maxwell‡, Yi Ming Gan§, Claudia Arango|, Jana S Doemel, A. Louise Allcock‡, Anton P. van de Putte§, Huw Griffiths#
‡ National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway, Ireland
§ Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
| Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia
¶ University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
# British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Corresponding author: Jamie Maxwell (j.maxwell4@nuigalway.ie)
Academic editor: Heather Lynch
Received: 14 Dec 2021 | Accepted: 29 Apr 2022 | Published: 14 Jun 2022
© 2022 Jamie Maxwell, Yi Ming Gan, Claudia Arango, Jana Doemel, A. Louise Allcock, Anton P. van de Putte, Huw Griffiths
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Maxwell J, Gan YM, Arango C, Doemel JS, Allcock AL, van de Putte AP, Griffiths H (2022) Sea spiders (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from ten recent research expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea - data. Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e79353. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e79353
 Open Access

Abstract

Background

This dataset contains information on specimens of Southern Ocean Pycnogonida (Arthropoda), that were collected from ten different research cruises, spanning 13 years. The individual aims and objectives of each cruise can be found in their cruise reports. The specimens have been collated into a single dataset, forming the basis of J. Maxwell’s PhD. The dataset will be used to investigate the community structure of Antarctic pycnogonids and the factors which influence its composition. This dataset is published by SCAR-AntOBIS under the licence CC-BY 4.0. Please follow the guidelines from the SCAR and IPY Data Policies (https://www.scar.org/excom-meetings/xxxi-scar-delegates-2010-buenos-aires-argentina/4563-scar-xxxi-ip04b-scar-data-policy/file/) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be.

New information

This dataset adds vital occurrence and abundance data for pycnogonids from 10 previously unexamined research cruises from the Weddell Sea, Antarctic Penisula and the islands of the Scotia Arc. It includes the first pycnogonid data from the Prince Gustav Channel. The 197 sampling stations within this dataset represent an 11% increase in the number of stations where pycnogonids have been recorded in the Southern Ocean, southern South America and New Zealand waters and an 18% increase for above 60 degrees latitude. Presence data for any observed epifauna are also included.

Keywords

occurrence, abundance, Southern Ocean, biodiversity, epifauna

Introduction

Pycnogonida, or sea spiders, are a class of Arthropoda found throughout the marine realm and are a sister group to the Euchelicerata (Ballesteros et al. 2021). Globally, there are over 1,300 described species from ten different families. Although pycnogonids are a cosmopolitan marine taxon, the Southern Ocean is particularly rich in terms of species, with around 20% of all known species found here and 14% found south of the Polar Front in Antarctic waters (Griffiths et al. 2011). With this high diversity, there is also a high degree of endemism, with 40% of the reported Antarctic species considered to be endemic (Soler-Membrives et al. 2014). Uniquely, Southern Ocean waters are home to representatives of all ten pycnogonid families (Munilla and Soler Membrives 2009), which has led to the hypothesis that the Antarctic is their evolutionary centre of origin (Stock 1957, Hedgpeth 1969, León 2001, Griffiths et al. 2011).

Antarctic pycnogonids have been studied for nearly two centuries. Most of this research has concentrated on taxonomic work and species descriptions, research which continues today with new species being described regularly (Cano Sánchez and López-González 2013, Cano-Sánchez and López-González 2018, Cano-Sánchez and López-González 2019, Dömel et al. 2019). The most comprehensive and up-to-date species list is by Munilla and Soler Membrives (2009). Pycnogonids are well represented within the online portal the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (OBIS 2022). When these databases are filtered for Pycnogonida, presence only, below -40 degrees, GBIF returns 14,086 records, while OBIS has 11,655. These records include duplicate records and specimens not identified to species level. The largest single database of pycnogonids within both GBIF and OBIS is SOMBASE Pycnogonids (British Antarctic Survey 2022), which is based on the records from over 100 years of literature. It contains 7399 occurrence records and 1837 sample locations of pycnogonids from the Southern Ocean and the neighbouring regions ((GBIF 2022) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS 2022)).

Despite relatively good taxonomic knowledge, little is understood about the community structure of Southern Ocean pycnogonids. The majority of investigations into pycnogonid community structure have focused on localised distribution (Munilla and Soler-Membrives 2007, Nielsen et al. 2009, Soler i Membrives et al. 2009, Munilla and Soler-Membrives 2015), continent-wide studies undertaken at a coarse resolution (Griffiths et al. 2011, Soler-Membrives et al. 2014) or are included within larger benthic community studies (San Vicente et al. 1997, Griffiths et al. 2009) . Species richness has been shown to decrease with depth, with more taxa on the shelf than slope (Munilla and Soler-Membrives 2007, Soler i Membrives et al. 2009), but with most species on the shelf having a wide bathymetric range (Griffiths et al. 2011). This is possibly due to past retreats into deep-sea refugia during glacial periods before recolonising the shelf.

Ocean-wide studies have highlighted the Eastern Weddell Sea and Bransfield Strait as possible diversity hotspots (Soler-Membrives et al. 2014), though it is important to consider the challenges of sampling bias, particularly around the well-studied West Antarctic Peninsula which appears to be highly diverse. Over 20% of species are reported to have circumpolar distributions (León 2001). Molecular studies have shown that some species, for example, Nymphon australe Hodgson, 1902, is a single circumpolar species, but with some population structure related to geographic distance (Arango et al. 2011, Collins et al. 2018). Molecular analysis has also uncovered species complexes and cryptic species (Krabbe et al. 2010, Dietz et al. 2013, Weis et al. 2014).

This study aimed to increase the distributional knowledge of Southern Ocean pycnogonids, in particular those found south of 60 degrees around the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea, through the examination and identification of over 5,000 previously-unstudied specimens, the results of which are presented here. These new data will be used, in conjunction with previously available data, to analyse the community structure of the pycnogonids and the factors which may drive their distribution.

Project description

Title: 

Sea spiders (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from ten recent research expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea - data

Personnel: 

Jamie Maxwell, Claudia Arango, Jana Dömel, Huw Griffiths, Louise Allcock, Yi-Ming Gan

Funding: 

Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship GOIPG/2019/4020. The publication of this data paper was supported by the SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal (Biodiversity.aq), one of Belgium’s contributions to EU Lifewatch.

Sampling methods

Description: 

The pycnogonids in this study were collected during ten research cruises, over 13 years, in the area between 110°W - 5°E and 50°N - 78°S. The samples were collected from different areas in the Southern Ocean, mainly the Weddell sea, South Orkney Islands and the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Sampling took place during ten expeditions on the RRS James Clark Ross, RV Polarstern and RRS Discovery. In total, 197 stations sampled contained at least one pycnogonid. Sampling took place between 2007 and 2019. For the full list of cruises and their details, see Table 1.

Table 1.
Download as
CSV
XLSX

Cruise data including temporal range, gear used, number of stations and number of specimens collected. AGT = Agassiz trawl. BT = Bottom Trawl, EBS = Epibenthic sledge, RD = Rauschert dredge.

Cruise ID Ship Dates # Stations # Families # Genera # Species # Individuals Gear (# Deployments) Cruise report
PS71 RV Polarstern 2007/11/28 – 2008/02/04 5 4 5 11 34 AGT (5) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/polarstern_antxxiv3.pdf
JR179 RRS James Clark Ross 2008/02/21 – 2008/04/11 9 2 3 9 42 EBS (9) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr179.pdf
JR230 RRS James Clark Ross 2009/12/02 – 2009/12/11 29 5 6 18 159 AGT (29) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr230.pdf
PS77 RV Polarstern 2011/02/08 – 2011/04/18 25 6 10 38 346 AGT (11), BT (12), RD (2) https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/30175/1/644-2012%20ANT27-3%20RKnust.pdf
JR275 RRS James Clark Ross 2012/02/07 – 2012/03/22 46 6 8 34 535 AGT (46) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr275.pdf
JR15005 RRS James Clark Ross 2016/02/26 – 2016/03/24 54 7 10 40 2686 AGT (51), RD (2), Kelp (1) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr15005.pdf
JR17001 RRS James Clark Ross 2017/11/21 – 2017/12/21 8 2 3 4 41 AGT (8) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr17001.pdf
JR17003a RRS James Clark Ross 2018/02/23 – 2018/03/11 10 7 10 27 1518 AGT (7), EBS (3) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/jr17003a.pdf
PS118 RV Polarstern 2019/02/09 – 2019/04/10 7 6 6 13 36 AGT (6), RD (1) https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/48988/1/Expeditionsprogramm_PS118_Dorschel.pdf
DY099 RRS Discovery 2019/02/15 – 2019/03/09 4 2 3 7 310 AGT (4) https://www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/reports/dy099_research.pdf
Sampling description: 

Sampling methods

Most specimens were sampled using an Agassiz trawl (AGT) or an epibenthic sledge (EBS) with 165 AGT and 14 EBS deployments. The AGT had a mesh size of 1 cm and a mouth width of 2 m (except for JR17007 where the mouth was 1.25 m). AGTs were deployed to a depth of between 54 and 2279 m.

The EBS had a suprabenthic and an epibenthic net, both with a mesh size of 500 μm (cod-ends 300 μm). The epibenthic net extended from 27 cm to 60 cm above the bottom, with the suprabenthic net extending from 100 cm to 133 cm. The EBS was deployed as described by Brenke (2005) and was fitted with an open-closing mechanism so that the mouths of both nets were closed whenever the EBS was not in contact with the seafloor. The EBS was deployed to depths of between 436 and 5339 m. Both the AGT and EBS were deployed for approximately 10 minutes (trawling time) and at a speed of 1 knot.

Pycnogonids were also recovered from Rauschert dredge (RD) deployments, once during PS118 and on two occasions during both JR15005 and PS77. During PS118 and PS77, the RD mesh size was 1 mm, while a mesh of 500 μm was used on JR15005. The RD was deployed, attached to the AGT with 5 metres of cable. Deployments were between 278.5 – 817 m.

A bottom trawl (BT) was used during PS77, which was a 130 ft trawl with a 10 mm herring cod-end. This was deployed 11 times at depths of between 223.5 and 486 m. The protocol for the deployment of the BT was similar to that of the AGT, but with slightly longer trawl times (approx. 20 min).

A single pycnogonid was recovered from a kelp raft that was recovered from the surface during JR15005.

Quality control: 

All records were validated. - Coordinates were plotted to verify the geographical location and locality. - All scientific names were checked for typos and matched to the species information backbone of Worlds Register of Marine Species (http://marinespecies.org/) and LSID were assigned to each taxon as scientificNameID. - Event date and time were converted into ISO 8601.

Step description: 

Sample Processing on deck

EBS – Once the gear was returned to the deck, samples were sieved (300 μm) and/or transferred into pre-cooled (-20°C) 96% ethanol, which was then stored at -20°C for at least 48 hours before further processing to avoid DNA degradation. After at least 48 hours, samples were sorted to the lowest taxonomic level possible, counted and stored in 96% ethanol.

AGT and BT – Once on deck, samples were sorted to the lowest taxonomic level possible, counted, placed in pre-cooled 96% ethanol and stored at -20°C. During the RRS James Clark Ross cruises, all specimens recovered in the trawl were preserved. For the other cruises on the RRS Discovery and RV Polarstern, preservation was done as described; however, it could not be verified that all specimens were recovered from each trawl as sampling may have been selective.

RD - The on-deck protocol for the RD was the same as for the EBS, unless specimens were large and immediately obvious, in which case these were separated straight away and transferred to pre-cooled 96% ethanol and stored at -20°C.

The kelp sample (Jr15005) was immediately sorted to the lowest taxonomic level possible, counted and stored in pre-cooled 96% ethanol.

Specimens remained in -20°C storage until returned to the UK. Once specimens were returned to British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, they were stored at ambient temperature.

Treatment of Samples

Every specimen was examined using a stereoscope and identified to the lowest taxonomic rank possible, using taxonomic keys and original descriptions (e.g. Hodgson 1907, Gordon 1932, Gordon 1944, Fry and Hedgpeth 1969, Child 1994a, Child 1994b, Child 1995a, Child 1995b, Child 1995c). Most specimens (5498) were identified by J. Maxwell at the University of Ireland Galway, with 159 individuals identified by C. Arango and an additional 50 identified by J. Domel. The online portal World Registry of Marine Species (WoRMS) was used to confirm acceptance of species names and the online Biodiversity Heritage Library was used to source many of the original descriptions. Where identification was inconclusive, only genus or family names were assigned. The nomenclature used for these specimens followed Horton et al. (2021).

To further aid in identification, tissue samples were sent to BOLD to be barcoded using the COI-5P region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. These will be made publicly available in the future, but if not available at the time of reading, they can be requested from the corresponding author (BOLD Project - NUIG Untangling the Sea Spider's Web: Investigating the Biogeography and Evolutionary History of Pycnogonida).

Any epifauna easily observable on individual pycnogonids was noted and identified to the lowest taxonomic rank possible. As the epifauna was not the focus of the project, the identification was rarely lower than Order and only occurrence was recorded. All epifauna were preserved together with the associated host.

All the BAS samples are on a long term loan to J. Maxwell. All samples from DY099 are stored in the Natural History Museum London. The data were uploaded to Global Biodiversity Information Facility (Maxwell et al. 2021)

Geographic coverage

Description: 

The samples were collected from different areas in the Southern Ocean, mainly the Weddell sea, South Orkney Islands and the Western Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. 1). The 197 sampling stations within this dataset represent an 11% increase in the number of stations where pycnogonids have been recorded in the Southern Ocean, southern South America and New Zealand waters (Soler-Membrives et al. 2014).

Figure 1.  

The location of the sampling stations and the cruises during which they were conducted. For cruise details and cruise reports, see Table 1.

Coordinates: 

-77.358 and -53.398 Latitude; -110.013 and 2.881 Longitude.

Taxonomic coverage

Description: 

General taxonomic coverage description: The Pycnogonida specimens consist of eight families, 15 genera and 81 species plus 16 morphotypes which could not be identified with 100% certainty (i.e. sp. inc., gen. aff. or sp. aff.). For a full list of species see the "Taxa included" table below and for the number of individuals in each Family, genus and species, see Table 2. The 81 confirmed species in this dataset represent 30% of the species recorded in Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic waters (Munilla and Soler Membrives 2009).

Table 2.
Download as
CSV
XLSX

The breakdown of the 5707 individuals in the dataset into totals for each Family, Genus, and Species.

Family

# ind. Genus # ind. Species # ind.
Ammotheidae 87
Achelia 5
Achelia assimilis sp. inc. 1
Achelia communis 3
Achelia spicata 1
Ammothea 72
Ammothea bentartica 1
Ammothea bicorniculata 5
Ammothea bigibbosa 1
Ammothea calmani 4
Ammothea carolinensis 21
Ammothea childi 1
Ammothea clausi 7
Ammothea gigantea 2
Ammothea glacialis 3
Ammothea hesperidensis 6
Ammothea longispina 6
Ammothea meridionalis 5
Ammothea minor 2
Ammothea spinosa 2
Ammothea striata 2
Ammothea stylirostris 4
Ammotheidae gen. aff 3
Ammotheidae gen. aff 3
Austroraptus 3
Austroraptus juvenilis 3
Cilunculus 4
Cilunculus cactoides 4
Austrodecidae 6
Austrodecus 5
Austrodecus glaciale 5
Pantopipetta 1
Pantopipetta sp. stet. 1
Callipallenidae 134
Austropallene 134
Austropallene brachiura 5
Austropallene cornigera 93
Austropallene gracilipes 2
Austropallene spinicornis 27
Austropallene tenuicornis 7
Colossendeidae 156
Colossendeis 154
Colossendeis sp. indet 1
Colossendeis augusta sp. aff. 1
Colossendeis australis 2
Colossendeis avidus sp. inc. 1
Colossendeis bouvetensis 6
Colossendeis colossea sp. inc. 1
Colossendeis drakei 3
Colossendeis ensifer 1
Colossendeis glacialis 4
Colossendeis lilliei sp.inc. 1
Colossendeis longirstris 1
Colossendeis megalonyx 114
Colossendeis robusta 2
Colossendeis robusta sp. inc. 1
Colossendeis scotti 1
Colossendeis tortipalpis 14
Dodecolopoda 2
Dodecolopoda mawsoni 2
Nymphonidae 5019
Nymphon 4888
Nymphon australe 3004
Nymphon australe caecum 13
Nymphon banzare 2
Nymphon biarticulatum 33
Nymphon bouvieri 689
Nymphon bouvieri sp. inc. 27
Nymphon brevicaudatum 107
Nymphon charcoti 33
Nymphon charcoti sp. inc 1
Nymphon compactum sp. inc. 1
Nymphon distensum sp. inc 1
Nymphon eltaninae 166
Nymphon eltaninae sp. inc. 4
Nymphon hiemale 30
Nymphon inornatum 2
Nymphon lanare 61
Nymphon longicoxa 84
Nymphon mendosum 2
Nymphon multiarticulatum 5
Nymphon multituberculatum 7
Nymphon neumayri 13
Nymphon orcadense sp. inc 1
Nymphon pagophilum 9
Nymphon proceroides 376
Nymphon proximum 17
Nymphon sp. indet. 13
Nymphon sp. stet. A 3
Nymphon sp. stet. B 1
Nymphon subtile 2
Nymphon tenuimanum 2
Nymphon tenuipes 57
Nymphon tenuipes sp. inc. 1
Nymphon unguiculatum 107
Nymphon unguiculatum sp. inc. 1
Nymphon villosum 13
Pentanymphon 131
Pentanymphon antarcticum 131
Pallenopsidae 279
Pallenopsis 279
Pallenopsis buphtalmus 1
Pallenopsis gracilis 9
Pallenopsis hodgsoni 104
Pallenopsis hodgsoni cf. 6
Pallenopsis latefrontalis 13
Pallenopsis leiopus 1
Pallenopsis macronyx 57
Pallenopsis obstaculumsuperavit 1
Pallenopsis patagonica 39
Pallenopsis pilosa 3
Pallenopsis rotunda 6
Pallenopsis sp. indet. 2
Pallenopsis spicata 4
Pallenopsis vanhoeffeni 33
Phoxichilidiidae 9
Anoplodactylus 9
Anoplodactylus australis 9
Pycnogonidae 14
Pentapycnon 3
Pentapycnon bouvieri 2
Pentapycnon charcoti 1
Pycnogonum 11
Pycnogonum diceros 2
Pycnogonum gaini 6
Pycnogonum gordonae 3

The most frequently recovered species, i.e. the species reported at the most stations, was Nymphon australe Hodgson, 1902, which was recovered from 56 stations. Pallenopsis hodgsoni Gordon 1938 was the second most abundant, found at 44 stations, followed by Colossendeis megalonyx Hoek, 1881 (42 stations), Austropallene cornigera (Möbius, 1902) (34 stations) and Nymphon unguiculatum Hodgson, 1915 (25 stations). Sixty-four per cent of the 197 stations had three or fewer species. For the number of species sampled on each cruise, see Table 1.

Nymphon australe was also the most numerous species in the dataset with 3,004 individuals identified. All of the five most numerous species were from the family Nymphonidae. After N. australe, Nymphon bouvieri Gordon, 1932 had 689 individuals, followed by Nymphon proceroides Bouvier, 1911 (376), Nymphon eltaninae Child, 1995 (166) and Pentanymphon antarcticum Hodgson, 1904 (129). Of the 97 identified taxa, 60% of them had five or fewer individuals.

Epifaunas from nine different phyla were recorded.

Taxa included:
Rank Scientific Name
genus Achelia sp. inc.
species Achelia communis
species Achelia spicata
species Ammothea bentartica
species Ammothea bicorniculata
species Ammothea bigibbosa
species Ammothea calmani
species Ammothea carolinensis
species Ammothea childi
species Ammothea clausi
species Ammothea gigantea
species Ammothea glacialis
species Ammothea hesperidensis
species Ammothea longispina
species Ammothea meridionalis
species Ammothea minor
species Ammothea spinosa
species Ammothea striata
species Ammothea stylirostris
family Ammotheidae gen. aff
species Anoplodactylus australis
species Austrodecus glaciale
species Austropallene brachiura
species Austropallene cornigera
species Austropallene gracilipes
species Austropallene spinicornis
species Austropallene tenuicornis
species Austroraptus juvenilis
species Cilunculus cactoides
genus Colossendeis
species Colossendeis australis
species Colossendeis bouvetensis
genus Colossendeis sp. inc.
species Colossendeis drakei
species Colossendeis ensifer
species Colossendeis glacialis
species Colossendeis longirstris
species Colossendeis megalonyx
species Colossendeis robusta
species Colossendeis scotti
species Colossendeis tortipalpis
species Dodecolopoda mawsoni
species Nymphon australe
species Nymphon australe caecum
species Nymphon banzare
species Nymphon biarticulatum
species Nymphon bouvieri
species Nymphon brevicaudatum
genus Nymphon sp. inc.
species Nymphon charcoti
species Nymphon eltaninae
species Nymphon hiemale
species Nymphon inornatum
species Nymphon lanare
species Nymphon longicoxa
species Nymphon mendosum
species Nymphon multituberculatum
species Nymphon neumayri
species Nymphon pagophilum
species Nymphon proceroides
species Nymphon proximum
genus Nymphon sp. indet.
genus Nymphon stet. A
genus Nymphon stet. B
species Nymphon subtile
species Nymphon tenuimanum
species Nymphon tenuipes
species Nymphon unguiculatum
species Nymphon villosum
species Pallenopsis buphtalmus
species Pallenopsis gracilis
species Pallenopsis hodgsoni
species Pallenopsis latefrontalis
species Pallenopsis leiopus
species Pallenopsis macronyx
species Pallenopsis obstaculumsuperavit
species Pallenopsis patagonica
species Pallenopsis pilosa
species Pallenopsis rotunda
genus Pallenopsis sp. indet.
genus Pallenopsis indet.
species Pallenopsis spicata
species Pallenopsis vanhoeffeni
genus Pallenopsis cf.
genus Pantopipetta sp. stet.
species Pentanymphon antarcticum
species Pentapycnon bouvieri
species Pentapycnon charcoti
species Pycnogonum diceros
species Pycnogonum gaini
species Pycnogonum gordonae

Temporal coverage

Single date: 
.
Notes: 

2007-12-22 through 2019-04-02

Usage licence

Usage licence: 
Other
IP rights notes: 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License.

Data resources

Data package title: 
Sea spiders (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from ten recent research expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea - data
Resource link: 
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/1e7b6980-0842-4c4a-8b14-541b95d2ed3c
Alternative identifiers: 
https://ipt.biodiversity.aq/resource?r=bas-pycnogonida_2007-2019, https://doi.org/10.15468/re3ffz, 1e7b6980-0842-4c4a-8b14-541b95d2ed3c
Number of data sets: 
1
Data set name: 
Sea spiders (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from ten recent research expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula, Scotia Arc and Weddell Sea - data
Data format: 
Darwin Core
Description: 

The dataset contains information on specimens of Southern Ocean Pycnogonida (Arthropoda) that were collected from ten different research cruises, spanning 13 years. The individual aims and objectives of each cruise can be found in their cruise reports. The specimens have been collated into a single dataset, forming the basis of J. Maxwell’s PhD. The dataset will be used to investigate the community structure of Antarctic pycnogonids and the factors which influence its composition. This dataset is published by SCAR-AntOBIS under the licence CC-BY 4.0. Please follow the guidelines from the SCAR and IPY Data Policies (https://www.scar.org/excom-meetings/xxxi-scar-delegates-2010-buenos-aires-argentina/4563-scar-xxxi-ip04b-scar-data-policy/file/) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be.

Column label Column description
id id number.
type specimen type, physical, molecular etc.
Language language.
institutionID an identifier for the institution having custody of the specimens.
institutionCode institution code.
basisOfRecord the specific nature of the data record.
occurrenceID an identifier for the Occurrence/specimen.
occurrenceRemarks notes on occurence/specimen, if any.
organismQuantity number of individuals.
organismQuantityType the type of quantification system used for the quantity of organisms.
sex the sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence.
lifeStage the age class or life stage of the Organism(s) at the time the Occurrence was recorded.
occurrenceStatus a statement about the presence or absence of a Taxon at a Location.
preparations a list (concatenated and separated) of preparations and preservation methods for a specimen.
associatedMedia a list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers (publication, global unique identifier, URI) of media associated with the Occurrence.
associatedOccurrences a list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers of other Occurrence records and their associations with this Occurrence.
eventID an identifier for the set of information associated with an Event (something that occurs at a place and time). This may be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the dataset.
samplingProtocol gear used to collect specimens.
eventDate the date-time or interval during which an Event occurred.
year year.
month month.
day day.
verbatimEventDate the verbatim original representation of the date and time information for an Event.
fieldNumber field number.
eventRemarks remarks on event, if any.
countryCode the standard code for the country in which the Location occurs.
minimumDepthInMetres minimum depth during event in metres.
maximumDepthInMetres maximum depth during event in metres.
startLatitude the start latitude of a transect.
startLongitude the start longitude of a transect.
decimalLatitude the geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive.
decimalLongitude the geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive.
geodeticDatum the ellipsoid, geodetic datum, or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based.
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres the horizontal distance (in metres) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. Empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates).
catalogNumber an identifier of any form assigned by the source within a physical collection or digital dataset for the record which may not be unique, but should be fairly unique in combination with the institution and collection code.
footprintWKT a Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of the shape (footprint, geometry) that defines the Location.
identifiedBy a list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who assigned the Taxon to the subject.
identifiedByID identifiers ORCID iD.
identificationRemarks remarks on identification, if any.
scientificNameID marinespecies.org taxon number.
scientificName scientific name.
kingdom the full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified.
phylum the full scientific name of the phylum in whch the taxon is classified.
class the full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified.
order the full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified.
family the full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified.
genus the full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified.
specificEpithet the name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName.
infraspecificEpithet the infrageneric part of a binomial name at ranks above species, but below genus.
identificationQualifier a brief phrase or a standard term ("cf.", "aff.") to express the determiner's doubts about the Identification.
taxonRank the taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName.
scientificNameAuthorship the authorship information for the scientificName formatted according to the conventions of the applicable nomenclaturalCode.

Acknowledgements

We thank the captains, crews and scientific teams of the RRS James Clark Ross, RV Polarstern and RRS Discovery from the expeditions PS71, JR179, JR230, PS77, JR275, JR15005, JR17001, JR17003a, PS118 and DY099. Thanks to Blue Belt Program and Natural History Museum London for access to the materials from DY099. We would also like to thank Dr Robert Mesibov for evaluating the data and Dr Vesela Evtimova for evaluating the manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank Dr Jianjia Wang for reviewing our paper and providing helpful feedback.

Author contributions

JM identified and counted specimens, compiled data, wrote manuscript. YMG complied and prepared data for submission to GBIF. CA identified and counted specimens. JD identified and counted specimens. LA provided lab equipment and edited manuscript. AP provided data help and publishing costs. HG provided specimens, compiled and edited data and edited manuscript.

References

login to comment