Soft sediment assemblages at Casey Station: (core samples: Nov 1998 - Jan 1999)

Samples were taken by divers using hand-held corers (core size - 10 cm diameter by 10 cm deep). This was the final component of a large nested sampling survey extending over a three year periods with samples taken in three summers and one winter period.

The aims were: 1) To examine spatial variation at several scales in these assemblages; 2) To determine if there were differences between potentially impacted areas and control areas; 3) To determine the level of replication, taxonomic resolution and data transformation that are appropriate to studies of human impacts in Antarctic soft-sediment assemblages. Cores were collected by divers in a hierarchical, spatially nested design incorporating 4 scales: Locations (1000s of metres apart), Sites (100s of metres), Plots (10s of metres) and among replicates within plots (~1 metre).