Replication Data for: Biological Trait Analysis of benthic epifauna collected in the Arctic deep-sea Chukchi Borderland

Abstract

This dataset contains “traits by taxon”, “taxa by stations”, and “traits by stations” matrices for 106 benthic epifaunal taxa collected with a beam trawl and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the Chukchi Borderland (CBL), north of Alaska (74 - 78°N, 158 - 165°W) on-board USCGC Healy in July–August 2016 from 486 – 2610 m depth. The data were used to evaluate ecosystem functioning of the deep-sea Arctic CBL with the Biological Trait Analysis. Table S1 contains literature sources used for coding trait modalities. Table S2 contains the “traits by taxon” matrix for epifaunal taxa collected with both the ROV and the beam trawl across the study area. Nine traits with a total of 39 modalities, reflecting morphology (adult size, body form), behavior (living habitat, mobility, adult movement, feeding habit, substrate affinity), and life-cycle characteristics (larval development and reproduction) of the epifauna are included in this matrix. Every trait is coded for every taxon with a ‘fuzzy coding’ procedure (Chevenet et al., 1994). Tables S3, S4, and S5 are “taxa by stations” matrices, containing the following information: presence and absence of epifauna at each station sampled with both the ROV and the beam trawl (Table S3), proportional abundance of epifauna collected with the ROV (Table S4) and proportional abundance of epifauna collected with the beam trawl (Table S5) at each station. These tables (S3, S4, and S5) along with Table S2 were used to generate “traits by stations” matrices (i.e., Tables S6, S7, and S8) through multiplying corresponding matrices. Tables S6, S7, and S8 are “traits by stations” matrices containing weighted scores of traits based on presence and absence of epifauna sampled with the ROV and the beam trawl (Table S6), proportional abundance of epifauna sampled with the ROV (Table S7), and proportional abundance of epifauna sampled with the beam trawl (Table S8). Table S6 was used to identify dominant trait modalities represented in the epifauna of the study area. Tables S7 and S8 were used to identify: 1) variability in functional structure of epifauna between mid-depth and deeper stations with a fuzzy correspondence analysis and a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, and 2) environmental factors influencing the functional structure of epifaunal communities in the study area by a canonical correspondence analysis. Tables S4 and S5 were used to calculate Simpson index (D). Tables S3, S4, and S5 along with the Table S2 were used to calculate Functional diversity (Rao's quadratic entropy, FD) and Functional Redundancy (1 – (FD/D)) indices to also check for functional difference between mid-depth and deep stations with a Kruskal-Wallis test.