Macro and megabenthic communities in the High Arctic Basin: Initial Findings

This dataset investigates the macro- and megabenthos of the Canada Basin,
which is one of the biologically least known areas of the Arctic deep sea.
Macro-infauna was collected with 11 box cores at six stations ranging from 640
to 3,250 m water depth. Total abundance ranged from 3 to 265 individuals 0.04
square meters (75 - 6,625 individuals per square meters) and decreased with
increasing depth. Biomass ranged from 0.04 to 228 mg wet weight 0.04 square
meters and followed the same trend.

Polychaetes, crustaceans and bivalves dominated the faunal densities, biomass
and species numbers. A total of 90 benthic invertebrate species/taxa (including
15 identified from under-water imager), not part of this data set) from four
biogeographic affinities were identified, including at least three new species
of Isopoda. The evident low abundances and biomass are in agreement with
findings from the Eurasian Arctic deep sea. This dataset exist in Excel format,
and presents the foundation for a scientific publication by Bluhm et al (2005).

The purpose of the dataset is to assess species composition, abundance and
distribution of the infauna of the Arctic Canada Basin.