Megafauna counts by taxon in images collected during three surveys (December 25, 2019, April 7 and 9, 2021) with deep-submergence vehicles at inactive sulfide mounds on the East Pacific Rise.

This dataset includes counts by taxon for megafauna in images collected during surveys with deep-submergence vehicles at inactive sulfide mounds near the 9 50’ N hydrothermal vent field on the East Pacific Rise. Images were collected with a down-looking digital still camera. We provide image areas for estimating megafauna density (counts per area of seafloor). Here we provide data from three surveys: one during HOV Alvin Dive 5044 at Lucky’s Mound on 25 December 2019 on cruise AT42-21 and two during ROV Jason II Dives 1309 and 1311, on the oceanic rise (between Lucky’s Mound and Sentry Spire) on 7 April 2021 and at Sentry Spire on 9 April 2021, respectively, on cruise RR2102. Megafauna were manually annotated to morphotype using ImageJ software. Morphotypes were identified to the lowest taxonomic level and assigned to a feeding mode. This dataset is provided in two formats: long-format comma-separated variable (csv) file and wide-format Excel (xlsx) file. This dataset is analyzed in a manuscript by Meneses et al. (2024).本数据集包含东太平洋海隆北纬9°50′附近热液喷口区休眠硫化物丘处，通过深潜器调查采集的图像中大型底栖生物（megafauna）的分类群计数数据。图像由下视数码静态相机采集。本数据集提供图像区域信息，用于估算大型底栖生物的种群密度（即单位海底面积的个体数）。本次共提供三次调查的数据：其一为2019年12月25日航次AT42-21期间，在幸运丘开展的阿尔文号载人深潜器（HOV Alvin）5044次下潜作业所获数据；另外两次分别为2021年4月7日航次RR2102期间，在海隆（幸运丘与哨兵尖丘之间区域）开展的杰森二号遥控无人潜水器（ROV Jason II）1309次下潜作业，以及2021年4月9日在哨兵尖丘开展的该潜水器1311次下潜作业所获数据。研究人员使用ImageJ软件，将大型底栖生物手动标注为形态型（morphotype）；形态型被鉴定至最低分类学层级，并赋予相应的摄食模式。本数据集提供两种存储格式：长格式逗号分隔变量（CSV）文件与宽格式Excel（XLSX）文件。本数据集的相关分析已收录于Meneses等人（2024）发表的学术论文中。