Pyrosome corpse observations across the undisturbed and anthropogenically disturbed seafloor of the DISCOL experimental area, Peru Basin

Deep sea food falls of blooms of upper water fauna are rarely observed. During the SO242-2 expedition to the DISCOL experimental area in 2015, a bloom of pyrosome colonial organisms was observed in the upper waters, with the fate of corpses also observed on the deep sea seafloor with the Ocean Floor Observation System (OFOS) towed camera sled, over a period of several weeks. 13,000+ images were inspected and seafloor pyrosome corpses counted in each image. This data set presents these counts for each image, as well as whether the counts were made on undisturbed seafloor, seafloor ploughed in 1989 as part of the DISCOL project or seafloor turned over earlier in 2015 by epibenthic sled. This data represents a rare example of the recording of the onset and decline in a seafllor food abundance over time. An associated manuscript is in preparation.