Uptake of sympagic organic carbon by the Barents Sea benthos linked to sea ice seasonality

On Arctic shelves, where primary production occurs in both the pelagic and sympagic (ice-associated) habitats, organic material (OM) can constitute a disproportionate fraction of benthic diets due to higher sinking rates lower grazing pressure than OM. Less documented is how OM assimilation across feeding guilds varies seasonally relation sea ice duation. We therefore investigated relative abundance vs Barents Sea shelf megabenthos summer winter 2018 2019, from 10 stations duration ranged 0 245 days per year. use highly branched isoprenoids, which are lipid biomarkers produced with distinct molecular structures by diatoms water column, determine ratio sympagic-to-pelagic assimilated organisms. From 114 samples 25 taxa analysed, we found that proportion 0.4% 95.8% correlated strongly (r 2 = 0.754) cover. The effect was more evident fauna collected during winter, indicating signals at latitudes. Our data show supply high carbon for benthos, although this variable likely dependent on availability patchiness deposition. These results comparable similar studies conducted benthos Pacific highlight importance seasonal zone inflow regions highest loss.