Checklist of newly-vouchered annelid taxa from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean, based on morphology and genetic delimitation.

Background: We present a checklist of annelids from recent United Kingdom Seabed Resources (UKSR) expeditions (Abyssal Baseline - ABYSSLINE project) to the eastern abyssal Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) polymetallic nodule fields, based on DNA species delimitation, including imagery of voucher specimens, Darwin Core (DwC) data and links to vouchered specimen material and new GenBank sequence records. This paper includes genetic and imagery data for 129 species of annelids from 339 records and is restricted to material that is, in general, in too poor a condition to describe formally at this time, but likely contains many species new to science. We make these data available both to aid future taxonomic studies in the CCZ that will be able to link back to these genetic data and specimens and to better underpin ongoing ecological studies of potential deep-sea mining impacts using the principles of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusuable) data and specimens that will be available for all.

Sunken trees in the deep sea link terrestrial and marine biodiversity.

Wood in the deep sea serves as a substantial food source in an otherwise barren environment, forming specialized, endemic, and diverse community assemblages. This biodiversity reliance on a terrestrial source creates a linkage by which anthropogenic impacts on land can alter the deep oceans. Knowledge of the alpha- or beta-diversity of entire wood-fall communities, and wooden drivers of each would elucidate the terrestrial and deep-sea linkage.