The BenBioDen database, a global database for meio-, macro- and megabenthic biomass and densities

Benthic fauna refers to all fauna that live in or on the seafloor, which researchers typically divide into size classes meiobenthos (32/64 µm–0.5/1 mm), macrobenthos (250 µm–1 cm), and megabenthos (>1 cm). 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

TOBB: Canada's three oceans of benthic biodiversity database

This dataset contain abundance data from Canadian Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans from the intertidal zone to upper bathyal depths, encompassing 13 marine ecoregions. 35 benthic datasets that encompass 3,337 taxa (70% identified to species and 21% to genus) from 13,172 samples spanning 6,117 sites. Abiotic data from these ecoregions includes lat long, depth, latitude, chemical energy (export particulate organic carbon [POC] flux), thermal energy (bottom temperature), and seasonality of primary production on the benthic biodiversity