Benthic macroinfaunal samples collected from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 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覆盖范围的大幅缩减与海表温度的持续升高。该区域的核心不确定性之一，是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，以及秋季海冰形成的延迟现象。上层海洋水文状况、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影响。为更系统地追踪海冰消融及相关环境变化引发的整体生物响应，一支国际科学家联盟已搭建起协同运行的分布式生物观测站（Distributed Biological Observatory, DBO），该观测站涵盖多营养级的标准化生物测量项目，并配套卫星与锚系观测数据。目前该分布式生物观测站沿纬度梯度设置了五个区域生物“热点”站位，可在跨纬度的五个生物高生产力区域开展统一规范的采样与监测：DBO 1（SLIP）位于圣劳伦斯岛（St. Lawrence Island, SLI）南侧，DBO 2（奇里科夫）位于SLI北侧，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）。本数据集涵盖2017年美国海岸警卫队“希利号（USCGC Healy）”科考航次第一航段中，各站位采集的沉积物样本对应的底栖大型无脊椎动物种群数据，数据字段包含站位编号（#）、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）。本次测定的大型底栖无脊椎动物参数包括：丰度、湿重生物量（克湿重/平方米）、干重生物量（克碳/平方米）以及类群类型。