Distributional records of Ross Sea (Antarctica) planktic Copepoda from bibliographic data and samples curated at the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA): checklist of species collected in the Ross Sea sector from 1987 to 1995

Distributional data on planktic copepods (Crustacea, Copepoda) collected in the framework of the III^rd, V^th, and X^th Expeditions of the Italian National Antarctic Program (PNRA) to the Ross Sea sector from 1987 to 1995 are here provided. Sampling was performed with BIONESS and WP2 nets at 94 sampling stations at depths of 0-1,000 m, with a special focus on the Terra Nova Bay area. Altogether, this dataset comprises 6,027 distributional records, out of which 5,306 were obtained by digitizing original data reports and 721 are based on physical museum vouchers curated by the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA, Section of Genoa). The MNA samples include 8,224 individual specimens that were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. They belong to four orders, 25 families, 52 genera, and 82 morphological units (out of which 17 could be determined at the genus level only). A variety of environmental data were also recorded at each of the sampling stations, and we report original abundances (ind/m³) to enable future species distribution modelling. From a biogeographic point of view, the distributional data here reported represented new records for the Global Biogeographic Information Facility (GBIF) registry. In particular, 62% of the total number of species are new records for the Ross Sea sector and another 28% new records for the Antarctic region.