Samples were collected from nine sites distributed across the study region in 2008 and 2009. To avoid confounding influence of seasons, the same sites were sampled in the same season each year. Sampling was conducted onboard the CCGS Amundsen between July and October during the Circumpolar Flaw Lead Study, ArcticNet expeditions in collaboration with the Canadian Healthy Ocean Network and the Malina project. Locations were chosen to study both hotspots and coldspots in the Canadian Arctic.
At each sampling station, an USNEL box corer was deployed for seafloor sediment collection. From each box core, three to five sub-cores of 10 cm diameter and approximately 20 cm sediment depth were taken for assessing benthic remineralisation function in shipboard microcosm incubations. After incubation, the same sediment cores were passed through a 0.5 mm mesh sieve under slow running seawater. The sieve residues were preserved in a 4%
seawater-formaldehyde solution for later analyses of species diversity and abundance under a dissection microscope.
