This record comprises six datasets related to the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) Marine Protected Area (MPA) review undertaken in 2025. The SGSSI MPA is one of the world's largest MPAs, and in April 2025 the area of the MPA in which fishing is prohibited was greatly expanded following the second five-year MPA review in 2024. Details of the new measures can be found within the latest legislation (SGSSI Gazette No 2 dated 22 April 2025: https://laws.gov.gs/gazettes/), and the datasets here relate directly to the areas and boundaries referred to in these measures. These datasets are: -The boundary of the SGSSI MPA -No Take Zones -General Benthic Closed Areas -Research Benthic Closed Areas -Pelagic Closed Areas -General Fisheries Zones The datasets are available as shapefiles. This work has been funded directly by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands with additional financial support from the UK Government Blue Belt programme.

This record comprises nine datasets related to the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) Marine Protected Area (MPA) review undertaken in 2019. The SGSSI MPA is one of the world's largest MPAs, and the 2019 review led to a significant extension of the MPA area to cover all of the SGSSI Maritime Zone totalling 1.24 million km2. Details of the new measures can be found within the legislation (SG Gazette No 1. Dated 31 January 2019: https://laws.gov.gs/gazettes), and the datasets here relate directly to these measures. The following datasets are published here, for which further information can be found in the legislation linked above: -The boundary of the SGSSI MPA/Maritime Zone -No Take Zones for South Georgia -No Take Zones for Clerke and Shag rocks -No Take Zones for South Sandwich Islands -No Take Zones for South Sandwich Islands trench -No Take Zones for South of 60degS -Benthic Closed Areas -Pelagic Closed Areas -Heavy Fuel Oil Prohibition line The datasets are available as shapefiles. This work has been funded directly by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

This dataset comprises chlorophyll-a and phaeopigment-a concentrations (mg l-1) obtained from seawater samples collected during cruise DY098 on the RRS Discovery during the period 2019-01-02 to 2019-02-10. The cruise was part of the POETS-WCB and SCOOBIES time-series with an additional survey undertaken around the South Sandwich Islands (SSI). The data contained within this dataset were predominantly collected during the SSI component of the cruise. Samples were collected at up to 6 depths across the top 400 m (approx. 5 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m and the chlorophyll maximum). Samples were collected and filtered on board and analysed at the British Antarctic Survey laboratory. This work was funded through NERC National Capability Science funding (NC-SS) for the Polar Ocean Ecosystem Time Series (POETS) and FCO grant NEB1686.

A bathymetric and topographic compilation of the South Sandwich Islands Volcanic Arc (55.1 S - 61.9 S, 24 W - 32 W) constructed in 2014, comprising multiple data sources (see lineage). The data are available as a 200m resolution GeoTIFF grid of elevation data. The bathymetric compilation was constructed in ArcGIS 10.0 using a hierarchical system of data priority, gridded using the Topogrid function and cleaned using both manual and semi-automated methods. This was then merged with terrestrial elevations constructed from cleaned raw ASTER GDEM grids supplemented by coastlines and form-lines taken from archival sketch-maps to produce a full hypsometric elevation model. The dataset was compiled as part of the Geological Long Term Mapping and Survey component of the British Antarctic Survey and forms the basis of a map within the BAS GEOMAP 2 series (see references).

This dataset contains penguin survey data and imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) across the South Sandwich Islands, from December 2019 to February 2020. It comprises orthotiff images (orthotiffs) and digital elevation models (DEMS) of surveyed sites, geographic penguin colony outlines, nest coordinates for individual species, mixed species' sub-colonies and groups where species-level identification was not possible. Finally, it also includes the total count for these different categories for each individual site, alongside an estimate of the nests that were not counted due to distortion in certain parts of the orthotiffs. The orthotiff images and DEMS were produced using Structure-from-motion (SfM), a three-dimensional (3D) rendering technology, and were then loaded into QGIS to manually extract nest coordinates for chinstrap, adelie, gentoo and macaroni penguins. Where counting nests was not possible, the estimate of possible nests present was calculated using regions of the site where a count was carried out. This dataset was collected by researchers at the Polar Ecology and Conservation Group at the University of Oxford with the aim that surveying these sites and updating current population assessments over the South Sandwich Islands will aide conservation policy and advance monitoring technology and capability. The South Sandwich Islands expedition was supported by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and funded by the John Ellerman Foundation and donations from passengers on Quark Expeditions' ships.

Cetacean sightings in South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands waters, made by a team of four professional marine mammal observers during the British Antarctic Survey CCAMLR synoptic krill survey on the RRS Discovery (DY098), January and February 2019. The latitude and longitude of each sighting, the identified species, bearing and distance from the vessel, and estimated group size are provided. These data have been used by BAS to estimate (i) humpback whale and (ii) baleen whale abundance in South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands waters in 2019. Funding was provided by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as part of the Overseas Territories Blue Belt programme, as well as the South Georgia Heritage Trust, Friends of South Georgia Island and Darwin PLUS award DPLUS057.

This database contains information on the herbarium specimens held in the herbarium of the British Antarctic Survey (international code AAS) as well as information about specimens collected in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic and held in other world herbaria. There are over 70 000 records, predominantly of mosses and lichens, but also of vascular plants, ferns, fungi and algae collected in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions as well as some from surrounding continents, particularly South America. The collection from South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands started in 1775 and from Antarctica in 1834. Documents relating to the Herbarium are kept in the BAS Archives (LS2/4). The records can be searched and downloaded on: http://apex.nerc-bas.ac.uk/f?p=148:1. There is also a facility to see a distribution map of specimens retrieved by querying the database.