Trace element data collected from 18 stations near the Mertz Glacier on the 2019 ENRICH voyage. Sea water was collected using a 12-bottle trace metal rosette (TMR) and acidified for analysis back in Hobart. Samples were measured using an offline seaFAST pre-concentration system and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) at the University of Tasmania. This data contributed to Smith et al., Circumpolar Deep Water and shelf sediments support late summer microbial iron remineralisation in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (2021).

Biological ocean data collected from ships find reuse in aggregations of historical data. These data are heavily relied upon to document long term change, validate satellite algorithms for ocean biology and are useful in assessing the performance of autonomous platforms and biogeochemical models. There is a need to combine subsurface biological and physical data into one aggregate data product to support reproducible research. Existing aggregate products are dissimilar in source data, have largely been isolated to the surface ocean and most omit physical data. These products cannot easily be used to explore subsurface bio-physical relationships. We present the first version of a biological ocean data reformatting effort (BIO-MATE, https://gitlab.com/KBaldry/BIO-MATE). BIO-MATE uses R software that reformats openly sourced published datasets from oceanographic voyages. These reformatted biological and physical data from underway sensors, profiling sensors and pigments analysis are stored in an interoperable and reproducible BIO-MATE data product for easy access and use.

In support of future science missions, an engineering demonstration was conducted to show the ability of the nupiri muka AUV to be deployed and operated at an ice shelf. The AUV was deployed from Davis Station, Antarctica, to conduct underwater surveys in the vicinity of, and beneath, the Sørsdal ice shelf. The AUV conducted several surface transits from the station to the ice shelf, where dive missions at various depths were conducted. The primary mode of operation was the AUV tracking near the seafloor. In addition, a patch survey was conducted near the stations, where several sediment grabs were taken.

Maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), also called maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), has become one of the most widely utilized fluorescence parameters in phytoplankton research. It represents the potential photochemical efficiency, which is the probability that the light energy captured by the photosynthetic apparatus is being utilized as photochemistry. Fv/Fm has been shown to have an instant response to variations in physical and chemical properties and is interpreted as a diagnostic of the overall health or competence of phytoplankton. Together with the absorption cross section area of PSII and chlorophyll concentration, it can be used to measure primary production (Cheah et al. 2011, Deep Sea Research). Seawater from 3 m depth was supplied continuously from the ship’s clean seawater line. FRR fluorescence yields were measured continuously at 1 minute intervals in dark-adapted state (! 15 minutes dark-adaptation) using a flash sequence consisting of a series of 100 subsaturation flashlets (1.1 μs flash duration and 2.8 μs interflash period) and a series of 20 relaxation flashlets (1.1 μs flash duration and 51.6 μs interflash period).