Long-term ecological field surveys from the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program (MCM LTER) have documented the abundance and diversity of microbial mat types across ephemeral glacial meltwater streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. However, field surveys are limited and are incapable of being performed across the entirety of streams within a field season.
Dataset Results
An intensive field campaign was conducted during the 2018-2019 austral summer to assess spectral and biological characteristics of multiple microbial mat types, as well as mosses, across nine ephemeral glacial meltwater streams in the Fryxell Basin of Taylor Valley, located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica.
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Snow patches within and adjacent to stream channels in the Fryxell Basin of Taylor Valley, Antarctica were sampled during the 2021-2022 austral summer as part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program. This data package includes snow pit measurements (snow temperature, depth, density, and water equivalent) as well as chemical characteristics of snow samples that were analyzed for nutrient, cation, and anion concentrations.
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This data package includes shapefiles for selected glacier, stream watershed, and stream channel boundaries in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. A combination of satellite imagery and digital elevation models were used to delineate watershed and stream channel outlines, while glaciers were outlined by hand. Watershed boundaries provide an estimate of the overall topographic contributing area for each stream in Fryxell Basin, whereas stream channel boundaries provide a topographic area estimate for stream channel, beyond the wetted margin, for each stream.