GAB Deepwater Marine Program: Project 4 – Benthic biota of volcanic seamounts, seeps and canyons of the GAB - Sediment data

This record describes the collections of sediments (and their derived data) from one Marine National Facility charter voyage conducted under Project 4 - Benthic biota of volcanic seamounts, seeps and canyons of the GAB - of the Great Australian Bight Deepwater Marine Program (GABDMP): IN2015_C01. A key objective for which is to characterise the composition, abundance and distributions of benthic fauna (seabed animals) associated with volcanic seamounts, canyon and seep zone habitats in in ~1000-5000 m depth, within and adjacent to the Chevron lease areas in the GAB. Sediment samples were taken at 6 potential seep, 5 volcanic seamount, and 3 deep outcropping rock sites using the Integrated Coring Platform (ICP) and the Smith-MacIntyre grab.
The Integrated Coring Platform ( ICP) combines a number of technologies to maximise sampling in a single deployment. The ICP is built around a 6 barrel corer (KC, Denmark) and together with its central electronics module integrates cameras (cable, seafloor and corer views), CTD (SBE37IDO), altimeter, 120KHz scientific echo-sounders, Niskin bottles and hydrocarbon sensor suite. Sensor data is delivered in real time to the surface via fibre optic deployment cable. The Smith-MacIntyre grab is a comparatively simple tool collecting sediments.
Sediment samples were analysed for grain-size composition, nutrients (total organic and inorganic carbon and nitrogen content) as well as macrofauna collected by elutriation (data from the macro-fauna analyses are described with the other benthic biota collections (GABDMP - Benthic Biota).

本记录所描述的，为大澳大利亚湾深水海洋计划（Great Australian Bight Deepwater Marine Program, GABDMP）项目4——大澳大利亚湾（Great Australian Bight, GAB）火山海山、冷泉与峡谷底栖生物群落——所属的IN2015_C01航次（海洋国家设施（Marine National Facility）包船航次）所采集的沉积物样品及其衍生数据。本航次的核心研究目标为：对GAB雪佛龙租赁区域及其邻近海域、水深约1000~5000米的火山海山、峡谷与冷泉生境相关的底栖动物（海底动物）的组成、丰度与分布特征进行系统表征。
研究团队采用综合取芯平台（Integrated Coring Platform, ICP）与Smith-MacIntyre采泥器，在6处潜在冷泉站位、5处火山海山站位以及3处深部裸露岩石站位采集了沉积物样品。
综合取芯平台（ICP）集成了多项技术以最大化单次下放作业的采样效率：该平台以丹麦KC公司生产的六管取芯器为核心，搭配中央电子模块，集成了多类观测设备，包括有线、海底及取芯器视角的摄像头、CTD（SBE37IDO）、高度计、120kHz科学回声测深仪、尼斯金采水瓶以及烃类传感器套件。传感器数据可通过下放光纤电缆实时传输至海面作业平台。Smith-MacIntyre采泥器则是一款结构相对简洁的沉积物采集工具。
研究人员对沉积物样品开展了多维度分析：包括粒度组成检测、营养盐（总有机碳、总无机碳与总氮含量）分析，以及对淘洗法收集的大型底栖动物的检测。其中，大型底栖动物的分析数据已与其他底栖生物群落的采集数据一同归档，归入GABDMP底栖生物项目。