Automatic data loggers are often used to monitor environmental variables such as temperature (of air and soil), humidity, wind speed and radiation in microclimates where experimental or ecological studies are being carried out. Some loggers are only in operation for a few weeks or months while others have been run for several years. Loggers have been sited in a wide variety of locations from the sub-Antarctic (South Georgia), South Orkney Islands (Signy) various Peninsula sites (as far south as Alexander Island - 70S), and some continental localities (e.g. Victoria Land). These form an important data resource to the climate conditions experienced by Antarctic terrestrial organisms. Various types of logger are used. Sensors tend to be deployed at or near ground level and in and around particular types of vegetation, or other experimental sites, such as cloches. Loggers used include Grant, Delta-T, Campbell and Squirrels. Victoria Land data for Kay Island and Edmonson Point in 1995 and 1996 was collected under the BIOTEX 1 experiment of the SCAR BIOTAS (Biological Investigations of Terrestrial Antarctic Systems) Programme. An overview of BIOTEX is available as a PDF file.

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.

READER (REference Antarctic Data for Environmental Research) is a project of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR http://www.scar.org/) and has the goal of creating a high quality, long term dataset of mean surface and upper air meteorological measurements from in-situ Antarctic observing systems. These data will be of value in climate research and climate change investigations. The primary sources of data are the Antarctic research stations and automatic weather stations. Data from mobile platforms, such as ships and drifting buoys are not being collected since our goal is to derive time series of data at fixed locations. Surface and upper air data are being collected and the principal statistics derived are monthly and annual means. Daily data will not be provided in order to keep the data set to a manageable size. With the resources available to the project, it is clearly not possible to collect all the information that could be required by the whole range of investigations into change in the Antarctic. Instead a key set of meteorological variables (surface temperature, mean sea level pressure and surface wind speed, and upper air temperature, geopotential height and wind speed at standard levels) are being assembled and a definitive set of measurements presented for use by researchers. A lot of stations have been operated in the Antarctic over the years; many for quite short periods. However, our goal here is to provide information on the long time series that can provide insight into change in the Antarctic. So to be included, the record from a station must extend for 25 years, although not necessarily in a continuous period, or be currently in operation and have operated for the last 10 years. In READER we have chosen to use only data from year-round stations.

The BEDMAP (Bed Topography of the Antarctic) database contains data collected on surveys over the past 50 years that describe the thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet. This has allowed the compilation of a suite of seamless digital topographic models for the Antarctic continent and surrounding ocean. The suite includes grids representing: - ice-sheet ... thickness over the ice sheet and shelves, - water-column thickness beneath the floating ice shelves, - bed elevation beneath the grounded ice sheet, - bathymetry to 60 degrees South including the areas beneath the ice shelves. These grids are consistent with a recent high-resolution surface elevation model of Antarctica. While the digital models have a nominal spatial resolution of 5 km, such high resolution is not strictly justified by the original data density over all parts of the ice sheet. The suite does however provide an unparalleled vision of the geosphere beneath the ice sheet and a more reliable basis for ice sheet modelling. The bed elevation DEM, which includes the entire geosphere south of 60 degrees South, provides an improved delineation of the boundary between East and West Antarctica and sheds new light on the morphology of the contiguous East Antarctic landmass, much of which is buried below an average of 2500 m of ice.

The weights of chicks in monitored nests of Black-browed Albatrosses are measured at 80 and 108 days after hatching (prior to 2006, weights at 85 and 90 days were also taken). Similarly the weights of Grey-headed Albatross chicks are measured at 100 and 131 days after hatching (prior to 2006, weights at 90 and 95 days were also taken). Data exist since 1989.

The use of automated systems to record the identity of individual penguins and their movements in and out of a colony can provide an effective means of studying penguin biology remotely. In 2002 an automatic gateway was installed at the only access point to the Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) colony at Fairy Point, Bird Island. Taking advantage of the colony's geography, which ensured that the birds have only one route between the colony and the sea, the gateway initially recorded bird identities from implanted radio frequency identification transponders (RFID tags). In 2009 a weighbridge was installed which records the weight of each bird and the direction of travel and from 2011 onwards the two systems, RFID antenna and weighbridge, were built into the same unit meaning it was now possible to confidently match the crossing data with bird identities.

Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) diet has been monitored at the King Edward Point research station on South Georgia since 2008. Scats are collected regularly and krill carapaces, fish otoliths and squid beaks extracted. Krill length is calculated from the extracted carapaces whilst squid beaks and fish otoliths are measured and identified to species where possible. This dataset comprises raw and processed krill length as well as squid beak and otolith measurements and identification to species where appropriate.

Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) diet has been monitored at Bird Island since 1989. Scats are collected regularly and krill carapaces, fish otoliths and squid beaks extracted. Krill length is calculated from the extracted carapaces whilst squid beaks and fish otoliths are measured and identified to species where possible. This dataset comprises raw and processed krill length as well as squid beak and otolith measurements and identification to species where appropriate.

Monitoring of Black-browed Albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) and Grey-headed Albatrosses (Thalassarche chrysostoma) in various colonies on Bird Island began in 1976. Data are available for the number of nests for each colony per year. More detailed information is available for selected colonies including the number of eggs laid and chicks hatched and fledged from 1989 onwards. An estimation of the total number of pairs on the island each year using a correction factor, and annual breeding success is also available.

Monitoring of Wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) nests on Bird Island began in 1958. It was carried out sporadically until 1976 when annual monitoring, including nest counts and estimations of breeding success, began in earnest. There are 25 defined areas on the island, and the number of nests has been recorded in each area since 1976. Additionally, from 1989, the hatching and breeding success has been monitored.