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Abstract:
Benthic fauna refers to all fauna that live in or on the seafloor, which
researchers typically divide into size classes meiobenthos
(32/64m-0.5/1mm), macrobenthos (250m-1cm), and megabenthos (>1cm).
Benthic fauna play important roles in bioturbation activity,
mineralization of organic matter, and in marine food webs. Evaluating
their role in these ecosystem functions requires knowledge of their
global distribution and biomass. We therefore established the BenBioDen
database, the largest open-access database for marine benthic biomass
and density data compiled so far. In total, it includes 11,792
georeferenced benthic biomass and 51,559 benthic density records from
384 and 600 studies, respectively. We selected all references following
the procedure for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and report
biomass records as grams of wet mass, dry mass, or ash-free dry mass, or
carbon per m2 and as abundance records as individuals per m2. This
database provides a point of reference for future studies on the
distribution and biomass of benthic fauna.
