The importance of landfast ice as a nursery and breeding ground for Arctic marine invertebrates was studied in Van Mijenfjorden (77°N, 15/16°W), southwestern Svalbard from March to May 2017. The collection of first-year ice cores with stations along a depth gradient allowed the investigation of both temporal and spatial differences in sympagic meiofauna community composition and abundance. Furthermore, water column samples were retrieved to examine the strength of sympagic-pelagic coupling. Overall, 13 taxa were identified from the ice and 15 taxa from the water column with low abundances of dominant ice fauna in the water samples. Total sympagic metazoan abundance peaked in late April with over 25,000 ind m-2, due to the reproduction of ice-associated nematodes. Throughout spring the presence of sexually mature nematodes and eggs supported the notion that sea ice in Van Mijenfjorden, especially at the main station (vMF/Mn – 50 m water depth), served as a breeding and reproductive ground to ice nematodes
