PANABIO: A point-referenced pan-Arctic data collection of benthic biotas.

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]