High benthic bacteria standing stock in deep Arctic basins

Abstract

During the Arctic Expedition ARK 8/3 (August to October 1991) with RV ’Polarstern‘ sediment samples from 13 staions with water depths of between 258 and 4,427 m were taken along a transect from the Barents Sea slope across the deep Arctic Eurasian Basins and the Gakkel Ridge to the Lomonosov Ridge to determine bacterial biomasses and organic carbon contents. Bacterial abundance dropped along the transect from 3.03 to 0.63×108 cells/cm3, and correspondingly bacterial biomass decreased from 17.35 to 3.43 μg C/cm3 sediment. Positve correlations were only found between total organic carbon concentrations of surface sediment layers and biomasses of small coccoid cells and small rods. The ridges and slopes seem to be sedimentation areas for the larger coccoid cells, presumably cyanobacteria.