Effects of Atlantification and changing sea-ice dynamics on zooplankton community structure and carbon flux between 2000 and 2016 in the eastern Fram Strait

The collection of zooplankton swimmers and sinkers in time-series sediment traps provides a unique insight into year-round and inter-annual trends in zooplankton population dynamics. Such samples are particularly valuable in remote and difficult to access areas such as the Arctic Ocean, where samples from the ice-covered seasons are rare. In the present study, we investigated zooplankton composition based on swimmers and sinkers collected by sediment traps at water depths of 180-280 m, 800-1320 m, and 2320-2550 m, over a period of 16 years (2000-2016) at the central station of the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) HAUSGARTEN observatory in the Fram Strait. The time-series data include the abundance of copepoda, foraminifera, ostracoda, amphipoda, pteropoda, and chaetognatha that were collected in the sediment trap time-series.