Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System image analyses of Vestnesa Ridge methane seepage collected during expeditions MSM108, PS136 and PS143/1 in 2022-2024
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02166
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Summary
Abstract:
The Vestnesa Ridge at 79 degree_north in the Arctic Fram Strait is known for sub-surface methane hydrate reservoirs and numerous gas emitting pockmarks, with associated microbial and faunal communities on its eastern flank. Over three consecutive years three expeditions to the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) observatory HAUSGARTEN took place: MSM108 (2022), PS136 (2023) and PS143/1 (2024). During these expeditions, the towed Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) was used to investigate active methane seepage on the north-western flank of the Vestnesa Ridge in water depths of 1200 to 1375 m. In-situ images were collected by the OFOBS at methane seep sites by Autun Purser.
Here we report the first faunal abundance description of the discovered active methane seep field. In-situ image analyses of the methane seep field and its active and inactive areas showed a regional community comprising 47 megafaunal taxa. The presence of obligate seep-associated faunal taxa, such as the tube-building siboglinid polychaetes and oligochaetes were interpreted as indicative of active methane seepage in the area. The most frequent taxon observed, ophiuroids in the genus Ophiocten Lutken, 1855, occurred in high densities with up to 80 ind. per m2 in inactive areas but was absent from the seafloor closer than a few meters from bacterial mat or tubeworm forests.
Katrin Linse analysed the in-situ images for seafloor cover and faunal abundances. Maximilian Schrade supported data analyses in Excel. Katrin Linse identified faunal morphotaxa and assigned labels to new seen taxa following the taxon codes established by Hemmateenejad et al. (2025b).
The contribution of KL was supported by the BIOPOLE National Capability Multicentre Round 2 funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (grant no. NE/W004933/1). MS is funded by the Biodiverse Anthropocene Progamme (ANTS) and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. AP was supported by grant no. AWI_PS136_01 and AWI_PS143/1_1.
Keywords:
OFOBS, bacterial mat, megabenthos, methane seep, tubeworm forest
Citation
Linse, K., Schrade, M., & Purser, A. (2026). Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System image analyses of Vestnesa Ridge methane seepage collected during expeditions MSM108, PS136 and PS143/1 in 2022-2024 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c56792e3-c94b-4ea5-afb2-72840919b01f
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Constraints
| Access Constraints: | None. |
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| Use Constraints: | Data are supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
Basic Information
| Creation Date: | 2026-03-06 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | PDC BAS |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Katrin Linse |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Maximilian Schrade |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Oulu |
| Name | Autun Purser |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
Additional Information
| Reference: | Katrin Linse, Lilian Boehringer, Saskia Brix, Jennifer Dannheim, Jonas Hagemann, Fereshteh Hemmateenejad, Áki Jarl Láruson, Giuliana Panieri, Lydia Anastasia Schmidt, Maximilian Schrade, Carolin Uhlir, Autun Purser, (2026). Discovery of a bathyal methane seep field at the north-western Vestnesa Ridge, Fram Strait, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2026.105620. Soltwedel, T., Asendorf, A., Barthelmeß, T., Barz, J., Becker, K., Becker, N., Bohringer, L., Brinkmann, T., Dannheim, J., Hagemann, J., Hasemann, C., Hoge, U., Holt, J., Janssen, F., Kluver, T., Kraberg, A., Lehmenhecker, S., Purser, A., Schnier, J., 2018. LTER HAUSGARTEN 2022 Long-Term Ecological Research in the Fram Strait, Cruise No. MSM 108. June 06 - July 03, 2022 Tromsø (Norway) - Tromsø (Norway), FRAM 2022, 47 p. Soltwedel, T. (2023): The Expedition PS136 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Fram Strait in 2023 / H. Bornemann (editor) , Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung = Reports on polar and marine research, Bremerhaven, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Polar- und Meeresforschung, 780 , 121 p. doi.org/10.57738/BzPM_0780_2023 Dannheim, J. (2025): The Expedition PS148 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Artic Ocean in 2025 / H. Bornemann (editor) , Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung = Reports on polar and marine research, Bremerhaven, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Polar- und Meeresforschung, 803 , 137 p. doi.org/10.57738/BzPM_0803_2025 |
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| Quality: | The identification of the benthic taxa was carried out by experienced benthic scientists, consistently identified to higher taxonomic levels (phylum, class, order) and only selected specimens identified to genus or species. | |
| Lineage/Methodology: | The raw OFOBS image data are part of AWI's LTMS MSM108, PS136 and PS143/1 expeditions and are available from the databases Mendeley and PANGAEA: MSM108 (doi.org/10.17632/f96cgnjyty.1), PS136 (doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.971407) and PS143 (doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.987478) (both expedition legs). The timed OFOBS images of the expeditions MSM108, PS136 and PS143/1 were analysed regarding the present seafloor cover and megabenthic epifauna while the hotkey images (see data collection section) were assessed for seafloor cover and identification of present fauna absent in the timed images. Low quality images (too dark, too high above or too close to seafloor, extensive sediment clouds and too many particles obscuring seafloor) were omitted from the analysis. To account for camera edge lens distortion effects, the images were split into 100 equal rectangles and the outer rectangle layer was excluded, leaving 74 rectangles for analysis, which represent about 2.8 m2 of analysed seafloor. The images were analysed to access percentage cover of abiotic and biotic substrate types following the sedimentary size classification of Tucker (1991), and specific to the Arctic Ocean following the substrate catalogue by Hemmateenejad et al. (2025a): mud, sand, gravel, pebbles, cobbles, boulders, or bedrock with the addition of bacterial mats, coloured sediments and carbonates to note methane seepage origins. Epibenthic megafaunal taxa were counted. As image-derived taxonomic identification to lower taxonomic levels is unreliable, we followed the recommendations by Horton et al. (2021), basing the identifications on established phylum and class levels, in selected compelling taxa to family or genus level. For comparability with other Arctic methane seepage associated fauna, we used the taxon code established by Hemmateenejad et al. (2025b) for benthic fauna and fish in the Arctic Ocean and Barent Sea. Taxa, not present in Hemmateenejad et al. (2025b), were given the next numerical taxon codes for the relevant taxon, and their edited images provided in here. |
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Locality
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2022-06-13 |
| End Date | 2024-06-27 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | 79.04245 |
| Northernmost | 79.12782 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | 5.21442 |
| Easternmost | 6.69005 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | 1206 m |
| Max Depth | 1357 m |
| Location: | |
| Location | Arctic |
| Detailed Location | Greenland Sea - Fram Strait - Vestnesa Ridge |
Instrumentation
| Data Collection: | In-situ seafloor imagery collected at different altitudes and resolutions by OFOBS in 2022 (MSM108), 2023 (PS136) and 2024 (PS143/1) were investigated for this study. OFOBS was equipped with a 26 megapixel stills camera (iSiTEC, CANON EOS 5D Mark III), high resolution video camera ((iSiTEC, Sony FCB-H11) and four downward facing SeaLight sphere 3150 LED lights positioned in the corners of the main OFOBS frame, with two additional strobe lights (iSiTEC UW-Blitz 250, TTL driven) (Purser et al., 2019). By default, the photo camera records an image about every 20 s, to allow the strobe illumination to charge between images, and observer triggered "hotkey" images were taken in addition to the timed images to record unique features (Isler et al., 2024a). From an altitude of 2 m, both camera images covered an area of approximately 6.5 m2 of even seafloor. Three red lasers were positioned triangular with 50 cm distance between each other (Purser et al., 2022). |
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Storage
| Data Storage: | 5x metadata file as csv and 19x morphotaxon image file as jpg. |
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