This dataset accompanies the paper 'Antarctic Marine Viruses: A Review and Future Perspectives' and compiles quantitative data on Antarctic marine viruses, including sampling locations, viral abundance, lytic viral production, carbon release by lysis, associated environmental factors and others. The primary aim of this dataset is to consolidate existing measurements on Antarctic marine viruses, facilitating future research on viral ecology, biogeochemical cycling, ecosystem dynamics, climate modelling in polar marine environments.

This dataset is derived from a comparative study evaluating six DNA extraction methods for their efficiency in recovering diatom sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) from Antarctic marine sediments. Sediment samples were collected from two sites: U1536C (Scotia Sea, West Antarctica) and KC02 (Sabrina Coast, Totten Glacier Region, East Antarctica). Each of the six extraction methods was applied to the same set of samples. Following shotgun metagenomic sequencing, the methods were assessed based on metrics such as diatom DNA recovery, average fragment length, and taxonomic diversity. The purpose of the study was to identify the optimal extraction approach for maximizing the yield and quality of diatom sedaDNA, thereby improving its utility for paleoenvironmental reconstruction.