Macrozoobenthos composition, abundance and biomass in the Arctic Ocean along a transect between Svalbard and the Makarov Basin 1991.

Macrofauna has been sampled during R/V Polarstern research cruise ARK VIII/3 in August-September (1st August til 1st October) 1991 at 30 stations, at water depths of 1018-4478 m, along a transect extending between Northern Svalbard and the Makarov Basin, as a basis for understanding aspects of the benthic ecology of the Arctic Ocean. The method of box core was used. Animals counts were done according to convention: sorting under a stereo microscope after sieving and preservations. A 250µm mesh was used for sieving. Accuracy is unknown. Box cores likely lose some light epifauna during coring process, but this is the most common deep-sea infauna collection tool used. Species numbers, abundances and biomasses were extremely low, and generally varied between 0 to 11/0.02 m super(2), 0 to 850 individuals/m super(2), and 0 to 82.65 g/m super(2), respectively. A total of 42 species was found. The amphipod Jassa marmorata was the most common species. Both numbers and biomasses of suspension-feeding species increased towards the Lomonosov Ridge, probably due to lateral transport of organic material by deep currents along the ridge. This dataset is covered in two publications (Kroencke 1994 & 1998).