Megafauna at the Haakon Mosby mud volcano (the Barents Sea) based on image analysis. ...

• Main Authors: Rybakova, Elena, Galkin, Sergey, Soltwedel, Thomas, Bergmann, Melanie, Gebruk, Andrey
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences 2021
• Subjects: Haakon Mosby; Barents Sea; mud volcano; megafauna; image analysis
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.15468/gwpvac; https://www.gbif.org/dataset/3fc4ed1b-9026-47a9-857f-f6543c444874

A photographic survey was carried out during the expedition ARK-XVIII/1b of the research icebreaker R/V Polarstern in August 2002 to the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV). Different habitats inside the volcano caldera and outside were photographed using a towed camera system (Ocean Floor Observation System, OFOS). Four OFOS transects were carried out in total: three across the caldera (I-III) and one outside the caldera (IV) to the south of volcano. The length of each transect was ca. 2 km. 1045 images were used for statistical analyses. Among the analysed images, 894 were taken along the three transects across the caldera and 151 images along the transect outside the volcano. All images within the volcano were taken in the soft-sediment environment. Part of images along the transect outside the volcano were taken on hard substrata (boulders, carbonate rocks and crust). Those images were excluded from the analysis because the aim of our study was to compare fauna from similar sediment environments. All visible ...