Cold seep macrobenthos of three methane-seep locations in the Barents Sea

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which chemosynthetic carbon from methane sources at cold seeps in the Barents Sea is incorporated by benthic invertebrates in these habitats. Macroinfaunal community structure at these seeps was also compared with non-seep control stations in the Barents Sea. This dataset contains abundance data of benthic macrofauna, collected with R/V Helmer Hanssen during cruises CAGE14-3, CAGE15-2 and CAGE16-5 in spring/summer of 2014, 2015 and 2016. During each cruise, the seafloor was sampled with a Van Veen grab (0.1m2) at 11 stations in total. The sediment was sieved over a 500 µm mesh and the macrofauna was preserved in 4% borax-buffered formaldehyde. Identification of taxa was carried out to the lowest taxonomic level possible and AphiaIDs were assigned.

This dataset is provided in a multi-sheet format and quality-controlled by CRITTERBASE (https://critterbase.awi.de/#qc).