An important part of the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) is evaluating carbon and nitrogen budgets in perennial ice-covered lakes. This dataset addresses this core area of research and quantifies the particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) found at specific depths in lakes across the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.
Dataset Results
We performed a field survey to assess changes in biomass, nutrient ratios, and isotopic signatures of three different microbial mat types in two glacial meltwater streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Samples were taken in January 2013 from pre-existing transects over Von Guerard Stream and the Relict Channel, and stretched from near the Von Guerard Glacier terminus to the stream outlets at Lake Fryxell.
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This data package includes ecological parameters of biocrust and soil from samples collected in-situ within the Lake Fryxell Basin of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica during December of 2019. Parameters include biological (ash-free dry mass, pigment concentration, and counts of soil invertebrates), physical (water content, electrical conductivity, and pH), and chemical properties (inorganic nitrogen, inorganic phosphorous, total nitrogen, and total organic carbon) of the surface soil, biocrust, and underlying soil.