As an expansion of a time-series study on meiobenthos in the Arctic deep sea, the diversity of free-living nematode communities along nine stations along a bathymetric transect was investigated morphologically in taxonomic and functional regards (feeding-type composition, life-history traits, tail-shape composition) and compared with previous studies of the same transect to investigate possible changes in the nematode communit...

This study assesses the impact of local iron enrichment on the small benthic biota (bacteria, meiofauna) at the deep seafloor. To evaluate the hypothesis that abundance, distribution, and diversity of the small benthic biota varies in relation to a local input of structural steel at the seabed, we analyzed sediment samples and the associated infauna along a short transect (~1.5 m in length) with increasing distance to an iron...

For benthic marine invertebrates, recruitment strongly influences the composition and abundance of resulting communities. We present the results of a long‐term (1999–2017) colonization experiment at the Long‐Term Ecological Research observatory HAUSGARTEN in the Fram Strait (Arctic Ocean, 79°N, 04°E, 2500 m water depth). Recruitment panels were constructed from plastic and brick and deployed attached to a metal frame in 1999....

Many countries are very active in marine research and operate their own research fleets. In this decade, a number of research vessels have been renewed and equipped with the most modern navigation systems and tools. However, much of the research gear used for biological sampling, especially in the deep-sea, is outdated and dependent on wired operations. The deployment of gear can be very time consuming and, thus, expensive. Th...

The Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV) is a methane seep that is densely populated by the bacteria Beggiatoa spp. as well as by tubeworms of the Family Siboglinidae. Analyses of samples from seven stations located in five different habitats (bare sediments, bacterial mats, siboglinid fields, sediments with small patches of siboglinids and areas of ‘normal’ sea floor) revealed differences in the density and species‐level diversity...