Bryozoa collection of the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA) - Data

Study Extent

The distributional data of Bryozoa came from different research expeditions, conducted between 1988 and 2014, and include 75 sampling stations, located between 18 and 711 metres of depth.

Sampling

Sampling was performed by using a variety of methods and gears such as dredges (Charcot dredge, Naturalist dredge, Triangular dredge and Picard dredge), Van Veen grabs of different volumes and, for opportunistic sampling, fishing long lines, mid water trawls (that accidentally touched the bottom due to a failure of the winches providing additional material), trammel nets and other fishing nets. In addition, during the XXV PNRA expedition, some samples were hand-collected by SCUBA diving.

Quality Control

Once at the MNA, all specimens were classified at the lowest possible taxonomic level; only those that were classified at least at the genus level were included in the present dataset. Several researchers contributed in classifying the specimens, and the last taxonomic revision of the whole collection was conducted, in the past two years, by Chiara Lombardi, Silvia Cocito and Piotr Kuklinski. During all phases of sorting, classification and storage of samples at the MNA, quality control and data cleaning have been undertaken at various stages in order to produce high quality data, and make consistent cross-references between the database and samples’ labels.

Method steps

1. The MNA uses an SQL-based database (Specify 6) and a R-Shiny web application to manage and show its collections, and link all the data (photos, glass slides, etc.) to the physical samples.

The present dataset reports distributional data on bryozoan specimens belonging to the Classes of Stenolaemata and Gymnolaemata collected in the Ross Sea and in Magellan Strait. It includes a total of 311 specimens corresponding to 282 MNA vouchers and belonging to 127 morphospecies. Out of these, 100 were classified to species level and 27 to genus level, representing 3 orders and 34 families.

1. Bryozoa
   rank: phylum

Ross Sea, especially Terra Nova Bay, and the Magellan Strait