Preliminary data on suprabenthic invertebrates collected during the RV Polarstern cruise in the Laptev Sea

For the first time the invertebrate fauna of the near-bottom layers of the Laptev Sea (Siberian Arctic) was studied by means of a specially designed device the benthopelagic sampler that was attached to an Agassiz trawl. Cnidarians, annelids, mollusks and arthropods were identified to species level and comprised 139 species in total. Fifty-one species are registered in the Laptev Sea for the first time and seventeen species are the first records for the Arctic Basin. Species are characterized as pelagic, benthic and suprabenthic (benthopelagic, nektobenthic, epibenthic) species.