Benthic macroinfaunal samples collected from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Northern Bering Sea to Chukchi Sea, 2017

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大幅缩减与海表温度的显著上升。该区域的核心不确定性之一，在于海洋生态系统将如何响应春季海冰消退时间的季节性偏移，抑或秋季海冰形成的延迟。上层海洋水文特征、浮游生物生产力、水层-底栖耦合过程以及沉积物碳循环的变化，均受海冰与温度变化的显著影响。为更系统地追踪海洋生物对海冰消退及相关环境变化的整体响应，一支国际科学家联盟已构建起协同的分布式生物观测站（Distributed Biological Observatory, DBO）体系，该体系涵盖多营养级的选定生物测量项，并搭配卫星与锚系观测数据。当前，DBO沿纬度梯度设置了5处区域性生物“热点”站位，可在横跨纬度梯度的5个生物高产区开展标准化采样与监测：DBO 1（SLIP）——圣劳伦斯岛（St. Lawrence Island, SLI）南侧海域，DBO 2（Chirikov）——SLI北侧海域，DBO 3（楚科奇海南部），DBO 4——楚科奇海东北部海域，以及DBO 5——巴罗峡谷（Barrow Canyon）。本数据集包含2017年美国海岸警卫队“希利号”（USCGC Healy）科考航次第一航段中，于各站位采集的沉积物样本对应的底栖大型底内动物种群数据。数据集字段包括站位编号（#）、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）。本次测定的宏底内动物参数包括：丰度、湿重生物量（单位面积湿重克数）、干重生物量（以碳计，单位面积克数）以及分类单元类型。