This data set contains chemical parameters determined for marine sediment samples collected in the 2014-15 summer field season as part of the Thala Valley Long term Monitoring (TV-LTM) project. The aim of this project is to examine changes in the marine benthic ecosystem in the vicinity of Casey station following clean-up of the abandoned Thala Valley waste disposal ('tip') site in 2003-04.
The chemical parameters are:
(1) 1 M hydrochloric acid-extractable elements (mainly metals) by ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry)
(2) water-extractable nutrients by FIA (flow injection analysis)
(3) petroleum hydrocarbon fractions (TPH: total petroleum hydrocarbons) and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) - polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - by GC-FID, GC-ECD and GC-MS (gas chromatography - flame ionization detector / electron capture detector / mass spectrometry), respectively
(4) Loss on Ignition at 550 degrees Celsius (LOI; as a proxy for Total Organic Matter) and Dry Matter Fraction (DMF) by gravimetric analysis.
Data sets 1, 3 and 4 were obtained for composite samples prepared from the 0-5 cm section of 51 marine sediment cores collected by SCUBA divers from impacted (contaminated) and control (pristine) locations around Casey. Data set 2 was obtained for a subsample of the surface section (0-1 cm) of each of 74 marine sediment cores collected during the same sampling campaign.
Sample locations:
* Brown Bay (BB) - inner, mid and outer sites
* Casey Wharf
* McGrady Cove
* O'Brien Bay (OB) - OB1, OB2, OB3 sites
* Shannon Bay
* Wilkes (adjacent to abandoned station)
Analytical labs involved:
* Wild Lab, AAD, Kingston, Tasmania (data sets 1 and 4; sample preparation for data set 2)
* Analytical Services Tasmania (AST), New Town, Tasmania (data set 2)
* Analytical Services Unit (ASU), Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (data set 3)
Information concerning analytical data quality (method reporting limits, accuracy and precision), are included with each data set. Complete analytical method details are available in a separate summary document.
