***** Dataset title *****

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and Coomassie stainable particles (CSP) data collected from the Southern Ocean in the austral summer of 2016/2017, during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition.

***** Dataset abstract *****

TEP are operationally defined as gel particles that are retained on 0.4 µm polycarbonate filters and stained with the cationic copper phthalocyanine dye Alcian Blue 8GX at pH 2.5. CSP are gel particles retained on 0.4 µm polycarbonate filters that are stained with a solution of Coomassie Brilliant Blue G (CCB) at pH 7.4. Seawater surface samples (5 m) were collected every 6 hours from the ship’s underway pump. In addition, vertical profiles (6 depths, generally from 5 to 100-150 m) were sampled from 19 CTD casts using a SBE 911 Plus attached to a rosette of 24 12-L PVC Niskin bottles. This dataset presents TEP and CSP from seawater samples collected from the ship’s underway pump and CTDs. Samples were collected around the Southern Ocean on the R/V Akademik Tryoshnikov in the austral summer of 2016/2017, as part of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE).

***** Original data collection *****

TEP concentration was determined by spectrophotometry following Passow and Alldredge (1995). Duplicate samples (150-300 mL) were filtered through 25 mm diameter 0.4 µm pore size Polycarbonate filters (DHI) using a constant low filtration pressure (~150 mmHg). The samples were immediately stained with 500 µL of Alcian blue solution (0.02 %, pH 2.5) for 5 seconds and rinsed with Milli-Q water. Duplicate blanks (empty stained filters) were prepared at every station. The filters were stored frozen until further processing in the laboratory (within 5-8 months). All sample and blank filters were soaked in 5 mL of 80 % sulfuric acid and shaken intermittently for 3 hours. The samples were then measured spectrophotometrically at 787 nm (Varian Cary spectrophotometer). The Alcian blue dye solution calibration was done using a standard solution of Xanthan Gum (XG).

CSP concentration was determined by spectrophotometry following Cisternas-Novoa et al. (2014). Duplicate samples (150-300 mL) were filtered through 25 mm diameter 0.4 µm pore size Polycarbonate filters (Whatman) using a constant low filtration pressure (~150 mmHg). The samples were immediately stained with 700 µL of working Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB-G 250) solution (0.04 %, pH 7.4), which was prepared with 0.2-μm filtered sample seawater for 30 seconds, and rinsed with Milli-Q water three times. The filters were stored frozen until further processing in the laboratory (within 1-4 months). Duplicate blanks (empty filters stained as stated earlier) were prepared at every station. Both the sample and blank filters were soaked in 4 mL of extraction solution (3 % SDS in 50 % isopropyl alcohol; Ball 1986) and the tube sonicated in a water bath (50-60 kHz) for 2 hours at 37º C. The filters were shaken intermittently during this period. The samples were then measured spectrophotometrically at 615 nm (Shimadzu UV–Vis spectrophotometer UV120). The CBB dye solution calibrations were done using bovine serum albumin standard.

***** Data processing *****

Absorption values from the spectrophotometer were noted in a notebook and then transferred manually to a spreadsheet. Average absorption of the duplicate blanks was subtracted to the absorption of every TEP or CSP sample. Then, the absorption of TEP and CSP samples were multiplied by the calibration factor (obtained from the calibration) and divided by the sample volume in L. Finally, duplicate samples results of TEP and CSP were averaged and the standard error (SE) was calculated as σ/sqrt(n), where σ is the standard deviation and n is the sample number.

***** Dataset contents *****

- ace_seawater_csp.csv, data file, comma-separated values
- ace_seawater_tep.csv, data file, comma-separated values
- data_file_header.txt, metadata, text
- README.txt, metadata, text

***** Dataset contact *****

Rafel Simó, Institut de Ciències del Mar. ORCID: 0000-0003-3276-7663. Email: rsimo@icm.csic.es

***** Dataset license*****

This TEP and CSP dataset from ACE is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) whose full text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

***** Dataset citation *****

This dataset can be cited as: 
Zamanillo, M. and Simó, R. (2021). Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and Coomassie stainable particles (CSP) data collected from the Southern Ocean in the austral summer of 2016/2017, during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition. (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5092920