In 2018 RRS James Clark Ross investigated the marine benthic biodiversity of the Prince Gustav Channel area and the macrobenthic molluscan fauna collected by epibenthic sledge (EBS) has been assessed for species richness, abundance and assemblage composition as well as for functional traits. In total 20,307 mollusc specimens assigned to 50 morphospecies and 4 classes (Solenogastres, Bivalvia, Gastropoda and Scaphopoda) were identified. Assemblage analyses across the Prince Gustav Channel area did not show apparent pattern or separation across depth, taxon or station. To set the bivalve dataset into a wider context, unpublished bivalve species richness and abundance data from EBS collected stations in the area influenced by the Weddell Gyre were added. This doi dataset provides data for 1) PGC EBS locations, 2) PGC EBS molluscan abundances, 3) PGC molluscan functional traits, 4) Weddell Gyre EBS stations (300 - 2000 m depth), 5) Weddell Gyre EBS bivalve standardised 1000 m trawl length abundances (300 - 2000 m depth). Funding was provided by NERC urgency grant NE/R012296/1 ''Benthic biodiversity under Antarctic ice-shelves - baseline assessment of the seabed exposed by the 2017 calving of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf''.

In 2008 RRS James Clark Ross investigated the marine benthic biodiversity in Amundsen Sea and in 2018 the marine benthic biodiversity of the Prince Gustav Channel (PGC) area and the macrobenthic cumacean fauna (Peracarida, Crustacea) collected by epibenthic sledge (EBS) has been assessed for species richness, abundance and assemblage composition. In total 4431 cumacean specimens assigned to 58 morphospecies and 5 families were identified. To set the cumacean dataset into a wider context, published cumacean species richness and abundance data from EBS collected stations in the Magellan Region and Southern Ocean (Rehm et al 2007, Muehlenhardt-Siegel 1999, Cordoba & San Vincente 2009) were added. This dataset provides data for 1) Amundsen Sea and PGC EBS locations, 2) Amundsen Sea and PGC EBS cumacean abundances, 3) Magellan Region and Southern Ocean EBS cumacean standardised 1000 m trawl length abundances (175 - 3500 m depth). Funding for the expeditions and KL was provided by NERC NC Science for the BAS core project BIOPEARL and for NERC urgency grant NE/R012296/1 ''Benthic biodiversity under Antarctic ice-shelves - baseline assessment of the seabed exposed by the 2017 calving of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf''. Funding for DD was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant Br1121/51-1.

In-situ underwater images were gathered during the expedition JR17003a of RRS James Clark Ross to the eastern Antarctic Peninsula in March 2018. The BAS'' Shallow Underwater Camera System (SUCS) has been used to estimate faunal density, biomass and species abundance of the benthos and to provide an overview of the conditions of the underwater landscape. Funding was provided by NERC urgency grant NE/R012296/1 ''Benthic biodiversity under Antarctic ice-shelves - baseline assessment of the seabed exposed by the 2017 calving of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf''.