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Article History

Received: 24 May 2024

Revised: 21 October 2024

Accepted: 22 November 2024

First Online: 22 January 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: No animal testing was performed during this study.

: All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the cruise leader of EMB238 from the competent authority (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH)). The study is compliant with CBD and Nagoya protocols.

: The entire meiofauna datasets generated and analysed during the current study are listed in Tables 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Furthermore, the meiofauna dataset is published on the webpage PANGEA: . The acoustic data are uploaded at the webpage zenodo:

: KHG and PMA conceived and designed the research, and KHG, JP and MS conceptualised the manuscript. JP and KHG supervised the preparation of the material and did the determination of Harpacticoida and the community analyses (e.g. similarity and diversity analyses). MS was involved in the selection of the sampling sites on board, operating the multibeam echosounder and side-scan sonar system and did the trawl mark analyses (e.g. calculations of the trawling indices and trawling intensity at the meiofauna stations). KHG, JP and MS wrote parts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.