Marine macrofaunal invertebrate community composition from sites sampled around Davis Station, East Antarctica, as part of the Davis Sewage Treatment Project, summer 2009/10

Soft-sediment infauna were sampled using a core of PVC tubing (15cm long x 10cm diameter) pushed 10cm into the sediment. Lids were placed on the top and, after some digging, on the bottom of the core and the sealed core was extracted from the sediment.

In the lab, core contents were rinsed through a 0.5mm sieve and the remaining infauna and other material preserved in 8% buffered formalin in seawater with Biebrich Scarlet stain (4 cores per plot) or 96% ethanol (1 core per plot). Infauna were sorted from the surrounding matrix under a binocular microscope, counted and identified to species, when possible, or allocated to a morphospecies category.