Distribution of meiofauna abundance predicted in a potential deep-sea mining area in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ)@en

The dataset contains predicted distributions of meiofauna on high taxonomic level computed for overall meiofauna abundance, diversity (Simpson's Index D and Evenness E), richness (ntax) and individual taxa using random forest regressions. The study area is a prospective mining operation area positioned in the German License Area for the Exploration of polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ). Investigating the influence of different environmental predictors, predictions are based on backscatter value and bathymetric variables only, on spatially predicted sediment and and polymetallic nodule parameters as well as on all of these environmental variables. Investigating inter-annual differences, predictions are based on samples obtained solely in 2013, 2014 and 2016, respectively. The spatial layers are saved as grid-files, being the standard format of the R-package \"raster\" (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/raster/index.html).