Counts of benthos communities in Kongsfjorden in 2009

In order to reveal the structure of the sparsely known deeper sublittoral hard bottom communities of glacial Kongsfjorden, the macroepibenthos from six depth zones (30-200 m) was analysed. A total of 180 still images derived from 6-h video recorded at the Kongsfjordneset remotely operated vehicle station were assessed quantitatively. Overall 27 mainly suspension-feeding species/taxa were observed. Of these, two-thirds have an arcto-boreal distribution, while the remainder are cosmopolitan. The overall mean epibenthos abundance was 33 ind./m**2 with maximum values at 150 m depth (97.9 ind./m**2). The majority of the taxa inhabited the entire depth range. Encrusting red algae, an unidentified sponge and the sea anemone Urticina eques, characterized the assemblage of the shallow zone. The sea anemones Hormathia spp. were important below 30 m, the Serpulid polychaete Protula tubularia was characteristic for the community below 50 m and the demosponge Haliclona sp. was a key taxon between 100 and 200 m depth. Cluster analysis and non-metrical multidimensional scaling based on abundance data showed differences between the assemblages along the bathymetric gradient, but only in the shallower depths in relation to the substratum surface incline. As surface and tidal current impacts attenuate with increasing depth, there is a gradual trend from robust key species towards more fragile ones (i.e. P. tubularia), in line with the 'Physical control hypothesis'.

(Supporting Information) Collection date and location of the analysed herbarium Corallina officinalis samples of the Natural History Museum (BM)

Suporting Information 1; Herbarium Corallina officinalis samples of the Natural History Museum (BM) analysed for the present study. Where the same NHM barcodes are provided for more than one sample, multiple samples were present under the same barcode in the herbarium. (-) indicates samples were not barcoded in the NHM (BM) system.