Meiofauna abundances following a 94 h in-situ copper exposure during SONNE cruise SO242/2

During Sonne cruise SO242-2 six enclosure corrals (30*30 cm) were deployed in undisturbed sediment at the southern reference site of the DISCOL experimental area using ROV Kiel 6000 (GEOMAR). Artificial sediment was incubated at 2°C in filtered seawater (sediment effect) or in filtered seawater spiked with copper (copper effect; 1, 5, 10, or 20 mg Cu L-1) for 72 h prior to deployment and subsequently added on top of the deep-sea sediment inside the corrals. After approx. 94h of in-situ incubation, push cores (7.4 cm inner diameter) were taken inside the corrals and sliced in different depth layers (artificial sediment layer, 0-1 cm, 1-2 cm and 2-5 cm). Samples were fixed in formaldehyde and meiofauna was analysed in the lab of the Marine Biology group at Ghent university.

在索恩号（Sonne）科考航次SO242-2执行期间，研究团队借助由德国基尔亥姆霍茨海洋研究中心（GEOMAR）运维的基尔6000型遥控水下机器人（ROV Kiel 6000），在DISCOL实验区南部参照站点的未扰动沉积物中布设了6个尺寸为30×30厘米的封闭围隔装置（enclosure corrals）。在布设围隔装置前，研究人员将人工沉积物分为两组：一组置于2℃的过滤海水中预培养72小时以观测沉积物效应，另一组置于添加了铜离子的过滤海水中预培养72小时以观测铜效应（铜离子浓度分别设置为1、5、10、20 mg Cu·L⁻¹）；预培养完成后，将人工沉积物投放到围隔装置内的深海沉积物表层。经约94小时的原位培养后，研究人员在围隔装置内使用内径7.4厘米的推入式沉积物岩芯取样器采集样品，并将岩芯切割为多个深度层：人工沉积物层、0~1 cm层、1~2 cm层以及2~5 cm层。所有样品经甲醛固定后，在根特大学海洋生物学实验室开展小型底栖生物（meiofauna）分析。