Macrofauna collected on colonization panels at Snail Vent Field on the Mariana Back-arc in 2014

This dataset is the presence of taxa collected on colonization panels deployed at Snail hydrothermal vent field on the Mariana Back-arc in the West Pacific. The panels were deployed on cruise YK10-11 in 2010, and recovered on cruise RR1413 in 2014. Samples were preserved in an ammonium sulfate solution, then transferred to ethanol. Macrofauna, including foraminifera and ciliates, were identified to lowest taxonomic level. Genetic barcoding was conducted for a subset of taxa. The purpose of the colonization experiment was to better understand biodiversity at this vent field in the Volcanic Unit of the Marianas Trench National Monument. This dataset derives from counts of colonists reported by Toner et al. (2020, doi:10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.783880.2). Additional funding to standardize these data to Darwin Core for sharing through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System was from NSF DEB-1558904.