The First Comprehensive Description of the Biodiversity and Biogeography of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Intertidal Communities

We created a database of 3,902 records of high southern latitude intertidal occurrences for 1,416 species/taxa, verified using the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS Editorial Board 2015), from 229 locations (Figure 1). Records date back to 1897. The majority of data came from published manuscripts and additional digital records from Smithsonian Antarctic Invertebrates (http://invertebrates.si.edu/antiz/) and for South Africa, Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA) from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (Rigby et al., 2005). A record was considered to be intertidal if it was found between the high tide mark down to a maximum of 3m depth (allowing for variable tidal range in Antarctica).