Raw counts of meiofauna collected from crevices of poly-metallic nodules from box cores taken during SONNE cruises SO268/1 and SO268/2 [dataset]

This dataset contains raw counts of individual nodule-crevice fauna assigned to higher taxonomic groups: Nematoda, Copepoda, Polychaeta, Tardigrada, Tanaidacea, Kinorhyncha, nauplii, Ostracoda, Halacaroidea and Foraminifera. "Other" denotes unidentified biological material. The fauna were extracted from the crevices of polymetallic nodules collected usingbox corers during the R/V Sonne cruises SO268/1 and SO268/2 in the formaldehyde or molecular-grade ethanol. To extract the crevice fauna, nodules preserved in both fixatives were frozen at −20°C for 24 h, causing the hard nodule matrix to disintegrate into smaller particles. The disintegrated material was sieved through a 32-µm mesh to remove fine mineral particles while retaining the meiofauna. Material retained on the sieve was centrifuged for 6 min at 3,500 rpm in a mixture of kaolin mud and Levasil to separate the fauna into the supernatant. This density-separation procedure was repeated three times for each nodule. Extracted specimens were subsequently sorted into higher taxonomic groups and counted individually under a Leica TL3000 Ergo stereomicroscope. Each row reports the raw number of individuals recovered from a single nodule. Nodule identifiers and corresponding dimensions are linked to the morphometric dataset of Schoening and Gazis (2019; doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.904962). Within the sample codes, "F" denotes nodules fixed in 8% buffered formaldehyde and "E" denotes nodules fixed in molecular-grade ethanol.