Soil fungi communities from three Antarctic islands were characterised using DNA sequencing. Between October and November 2011, soil samples were collected from Bird Island, Signy Island and Leonie Island in the sub-Antarctic, low maritime and high maritime Antarctic respectively. Soil was collected under populations of Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl. and Deschampsia antarctica Desv., the only two native vascular plant species that occur in Antarctica. Total DNA was extracted from the soils and fungal specific primers used to amplify the ribosomal ITS region for subsequent 454 pyrosequencing. Sequences are deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (study accession SRP068654). Funding was provided by the NERC grants NE/H014098/1, NE/H014772/1 and NE/H01408X/1.

These data are (1) porewater extractions of cores of the permafrost and active layer of Adventdalen, Svalbard, (2) solid-phase extractions of the same cores, and (3) in-situ porewater sampling from the end of the summer, 2017. The aqueous parameters are: major ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, NO3-, SO42-), Fe(aq), Mn(aq), aqueous CH4 and CO2 concentrations, delta 13C- CH4, acetate, propionic acid, isobutyric acid, butyric acid, isovaleric acid, valeric acid, isocaproic acid, caproic acid, heptanoic acid, pH, oxidation-reduction potential, dissolved oxygen and alkalinity. The solid parameters are: organic carbon, nitrogen, acid volatile sulphur (AVS), chromium-reducible sulphur (CRS), amorphous and nanoparticulate iron (oxyhydr)oxides, crystalline iron (oxyhydr)oxides, iron bound in carbonates, and magnetite. Funding was provided by the NERC grant NE/M019829/1.