DY008 climate change microbial data in Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry.

This data set contains data from incubations with sediment cores to assess the impact of ocean acidification (OA) and temperature on the abundance of nitrogen cycling microbes within bioturbated and undisturbed sediments was compared. The data were collected between 01-April-2014 to 10-April-2014 on board the RRS Discovery cruise DY008 in the Celtic Sea. The authors do not have any concerns over the quality of the data set and values are consistent with similar data reported in the wider literature. Intact, undisturbed sediment cores were collected from four contrasting sediment types (mud, sandy mud, muddy sand and sand) and incubated for a period of six months at either 11 deg C/391 ppm pCO₂ or 14.5 deg C/1026 ppm pCO₂, after which samples were taken from undisturbed surface and from burrowed sediments. The impact of sediment type, sample type and elevated temperature CO₂ treatments on the abundance of key genes associated with nitrogen cycling (nitrification, nitrite reductase and anammox) were analysed via quantitative PCR. The data were collected as part of the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) research programme as part of Module 3 of the Biogeochemistry, Macronutrient and Carbon Cycling in the benthic layer (BMCC) research programme. SSB was co-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The programme took a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European shelf seas, to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles. The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) created the metadata entry and is responsible for holding master copies of the data.