NW Pacific Deep-sea Benthos Biodiversity (Beneficial Project)

Study Extent

Based on these expeditions, the Beneficial project (Biogeography of the northwest Pacific fauna. A benchmark study for estimations of alien invasions into the Arctic Ocean in times of rapid climate chance) was designed. The main aims of the Beneficial project were 1- digitizing the biodiversity and environmental data collected during our expeditions, 2- discovering the deep-sea biogeography and biodiversity patterns in the NW Pacific, 3- predicting the potential future distribution range shifts of key species from the NW Pacific to the Arctic Ocean under rapid climate change, and 4- compiling a novel book on the taxonomy and biogeography of the highly abundant key species. All the data, publications, and the book arising from this project provide crucial benchmarks and datasets for any deep-sea biodiversity assessment, and help predict the future status of the Arctic marine ecosystem in a changing environment (Brandt et al. 2020; Canonico et al. 2019; Saeedi et al. 2019b; Saeedi et al. 2019c; Saeedi et al. 2019d; 2020; Saeedi et al. 2019e).

Sampling

All specimens were collected using standard gear (CTD, MUC (multicorer); GKG (giant box corer); EBS (epibenthic sledge); AGT (Agassiz Trawl), WT (bottom trawl) (Brandt and Malyutina 2014), BC (box corer) (Brandt et al. 2010), with PN (plankton net) (Chernyshev and Polyakova 2018) being deployed following a standardized method (Brandt and Malyutina 2014).

Method steps

1. All specimens were collected, identified, described, and digitised.

NW Pacific