Canada Basin Ocean 1 Infauna CCGC Louis S. St. Laurent 2002-23

This dataset investigates the macro- and megabenthos of the Canada Basin, which is one of the biologically least known areas of the Arctic deep sea. Macro-infauna was collected with 11 box cores at six stations ranging from 640 to 3,250 m water depth. Total abundance ranged from 3 to 265 individuals 0.04 square meters (756,625 individuals per square meters) and decreased with increasing depth. Biomass ranged from 0.04 to 228 mg wet weight 0.04 m2 (15,700 mg wet weight per square meter) and followed the same trend. Polychaetes, crustaceans and bivalves dominated the faunal densities, biomass and species numbers. A total of 90 benthic invertebrate species/taxa (including 15 identified from under-water imager), not part of this data set) from four biogeographic affinities were identified, including at least three new species of Isopoda. The evident low abundances and biomass are in agreement with findings from the Eurasian Arctic deep sea. This dataset exist in Excel format, and presents the foundation for a scientific publication by Bluhm et al (2005). To assess species composition, abundance and distribution of the infauna of the Arctic Canada Basin.