Study on meiobenthos and nematode communities (counts, density, biomass, genus composition) collected in the Arctic Ocean in August and September 1991. The data were digitized by VLIZ from the original report: Jivaluk, J. (1993). Comparative study of the meiobenthos in the Arctic region. MSc Thesis. RUG: Gent. 135 pp. The meiofauna and nematode communities have been studied in multiple corer samples collected from seven stations in the Arctic Ocean (the Lomonosov Ridge, the Amundsen Basin and the Morris Jesup Rise). Samples were taken at depths ranging between 1072-4273 m using different mesh sizes. Most of the animals are found in the uppermost centimeter of the sediment and their densities decrease with increasing depth into the sediment. The nematode communities are dominated by species of the families Monhysteridae, Linhomoeidae, Chromadoridae and Leptolaimidae. Monhystera has the highest density followed by Metalinhomoeus, Leptolaimus and Acantholaimus. Most of the nematodes which are retained on the 125 and 250 µm mesh are adults. At the smaller mesh (32 and 63 µm) the number of adult increases with increasing water depth.

Samples of the macrobenthic fauna of soft sediments were collected from around Svalbard during the 1991 Arctic EPOS cruise of RVPolarstern Although faunal variability could be related to sediment granulometry and depth, all stations to the south and east of the Archipelago lay within the broadly defined central Barents Sea community. In this community, (alfa-diversity was variable and sampled between 77 and 337 m showed no clear relationship to depth. Diversity in the area close to the polar front was notably high, rarefaction predicting that 43 ± 5.5 species might occur in a sample of 201 individuals. k-Dominance plots suggested that muddy sand communities around Sval- bard were no less diverse than similar assemblages in the North Sea.

This represents data on Benthic fauna, Food webs and the littoral zone from the Polish Academy of Sciences; Institute of Oceanology, taken between 1981 - 1985 from 60 stations annually investigated during summer. This dataset was collected as part of an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI).

The data was collected in the framework of a dive operated shallow water (5-30m) research of the benthic soft bottom community in Arctic Kongsfjord/Spitsbergen