Benthic macroinfaunal samples collected from the United States Coast Guard Ship (USCGS) Cruise Ship Healy, Northern Bering Sea to Chukchi Sea, 2018

The Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean is experiencing major reductions in seasonal sea ice extent and increases in sea surface temperatures. One of the key uncertainties in this region is how the marine ecosystem will respond to seasonal shifts in the timing of spring sea ice retreat and/or delays in fall sea ice formation. Variations in upper ocean water hydrography, planktonic production, pelagic-benthic coupling and sediment carbon cycling are all influenced by sea ice and temperature change. To more systematically track the broad biological response to sea ice retreat and associated environmental change, an international consortium of scientists have developed a coordinated “Distributed Biological Observatory” (DBO) that includes selected biological measurements at multiple trophic levels, along with satellite and mooring measurements. The DBO currently focuses on five regional biological “hotspot” locations along a latitudinal gradient that allows for consistent sampling and monitoring at five biologically productive locations across a latitudinal gradient: DBO 1 (SLIP)-south of St. Lawrence Island (SLI), DBO2 (Chirikov)-north of SLI, DBO3 (southern Chukchi Sea), DBO4-NE Chukchi Sea,and DBO5-Barrow Canyon. This dataset contains benthic macroinfaunal population level from sediment samples collected at each station for the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Healy cruise-Leg 1 in 2017, identified by station number (#), Station name (Stn. Name), Date (mm/dd/yy), latitude (°N), longitude (°W), and station depth (m). The following macroinfaunal parameters were determined: abundance, wet weight biomass (grams of wet weight per meters squared), dry weight biomass (grams of Carbon per meters squared), and taxon type.

北冰洋太平洋扇区正经历季节性海冰范围的显著缩减与海表温度的持续上升。该区域现存核心不确定性之一，在于海洋生态系统将如何响应春季海冰消融时间的季节性偏移，以及秋季海冰形成过程的延迟。上层海洋水文特征、浮游生物生产力、浮游-底栖耦合作用以及沉积物碳循环的变化，均受海冰与温度变化的调控与影响。为更系统地追踪海冰消融及相关环境变化引发的全域生物响应，一支国际性科学家合作团队开发了协同式"分布式生物观测站（Distributed Biological Observatory, DBO）"项目，该项目涵盖多营养级的精选生物学测量内容，并搭配卫星与锚系观测数据。当前DBO沿纬度梯度聚焦于五个区域生物"热点"点位，可在横跨该纬度梯度的五个生物高产出区域开展标准化采样与监测：DBO 1（SLIP）——圣劳伦斯岛（St. Lawrence Island, SLI）以南海域，DBO 2（奇里科夫（Chirikov））——SLI以北海域，DBO 3（楚科奇海南部），DBO 4（楚科奇海东北部），DBO 5（巴罗峡谷（Barrow Canyon））。本数据集涵盖2017年美国海岸警卫队（USCGC）"希利号"巡航航次第一航段各站位采集的沉积物样本中的底栖大型无脊椎动物种群数据，数据按站位编号（#）、站位名称（Stn. Name）、采样日期（mm/dd/yy）、纬度（°N）、经度（°W）以及站位水深（m）进行标识。本次测定的大型无脊椎动物参数包括：丰度、湿重生物量（克/平方米，湿重计）、干重生物量（克碳/平方米）以及分类单元类型。