Search

Profound environmental changes, such as drastic sea-ice decline, leave large-scale ecological footprints on the distribution and composition of marine biota in the Arctic. Currently, the impact of such stressors is not sufficiently understood due to the lack of pan-Arctic data that allow for estimating ecological baselines as well as modelling current and forecast potential changes in benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we introduce the PAN-Arctic data collection of benthic BIOtas (PANABIO) and discuss its timeliness, potential, and details of its further development. The data collection contains individual datasets with records (presence, counts, abundance, or biomass) of benthic fauna, usually at genus level or species level, which were identified in field samples obtained at point-referenced locations (stations) by means of grabs, towed gear, or seabed imaging. The data cover the entire pan-Arctic realm, i.e. the central Arctic Ocean, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Laptev Sea, Kara Sea, Barents Sea (including the White Sea), Svalbard waters, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, Canadian Archipelago, Beaufort Sea, and Bering Sea as well as some adjacent sub-Arctic regions (Sea of Japan, Gulf of Okhotsk). Currently (as of 14 December 2023), PANABIO includes 27 datasets with a total of 126 388 records of 2978 taxa collected from 11 555 samples taken at 10 596 stations during 1095 cruises between 1800 and 2014. These numbers will increase with more data becoming available over time through contributions from PANABIO users. The data collection is available in a PostgreSQL-based data warehouse that can be accessed and queried through an open-access front-end web service at https://critterbase.awi.de/panabio (last access: 27 February 2024). A snapshot of the current data collection and its 27 individual datasets is also available from the data publisher PANGAEA (10.1594/PANGAEA.963640, Piepenburg et al., 2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profound environmental changes, such as drastic sea-ice decline, leave large-scale ecological footprints on the distribution and composition of marine biotas in the Arctic. Currently, the impact of such stressors is not sufficiently understood due to the lack of pan-Arctic data that allow for estimating ecological baselines, as well as modelling current and forecast potential changes in benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we introduce a PAN-Arctic data collection of benthic BIOtas (PANABIO), and discuss its timeliness, potential, and details of its further development. The data collection contains records of benthic fauna at genus-level or species-level identified in field samples obtained by means of grabs, towed gear, or seabed imaging. Currently, it includes records of 2,968 species or genera, ranging from presence to counts, densities or biomass, grouped per sample. The data represent the pan-Arctic realm, covering all major marine areas, i.e., the central Arctic Ocean, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Laptev Sea, Kara Sea, Barents Sea (incl. White Sea), Svalbard waters, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, Canadian Archipelago, Beaufort Sea, and Bering Sea. All data are point-referenced sampling locations. Currently, 124,040 records from 10,645 samples taken at 10,631 stations between 1800 and 2014 are included, but these numbers will increase with more data becoming available. The data collection is available in a PostgreSQL-based data warehouse that can be accessed and queried through an open-access frontend web service at https://critterbase.awi.de/panabio. A snap shot of the current data collection (of 26 June 2023) is also available from the data publisher PANGAEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]