The dispersal of benthic marine invertebrates by kelp rafts in the Southern Ocean

Published: 2000-08-11

Metadata record for data expected from ASAC Project 2163 See the link below for public details on this project. The dataset provides records of observations of kelp rafts passing within 50 m of one side of the vessel over replicated periods of 1 hour. Data were collected over subantarctic latitudes only. The data were collected by observers onboard the vessels who were looking out for the presence of kelp rafts floating around the Southern Ocean (as possible transport vectors between subantarctic islands for various biological species). On the Aurora Australis (for example), observers were generally seated on the bridge observation chair, recording instances of kelp rafts passing by the port side of the vessel. Binoculars were used to spot the kelp rafts. The dataset includes the following fields (the data have been extracted from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's Biodiversity database): Scientific name Observation date Latitude Longitude Catalogue Number Voyage Code Season Cruise Name