Abstract The spatio-temporal distribution of seven abundant morphospecies (i.e. taxa identified based on morphological traits) and the diversity of the benthic megafaunal community at the Barkley Canyon hydrates site (870 m, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada) were assessed in 18 linear imaging transects (each transect ~30 m long), conducted with an Internet Operated Deep-sea Crawler in November 2016. Faunal counts (as proxy for local abundances) were treated as Poisson-behaving variables and were modeled and correlated to habitat quality (i.e. level of physical seafloor disturbance, as previously induced by the crawler), fluctuating oceanographic conditions (i.e. tides and currents, seasonal transitions and episodic particle fluxes) and temporally and spatially varying food availability (i.e. elevated chlorophyll levels, proximity to the hydrate mounds as additional energy sources). The model outcome was used to establish a potential trigger-notification procedure for substrate disturbance monitoring when ratios of faunal abundances exceed the expected range for any morphospecies. Finally, a quality assessment of the crawler’s performance as a multidisciplinary monitoring platform was performed using individual and morphospecies accumulation curves, which aids in optimizing and standardizing data collection protocols. We showed that the abundances and diversity of hydrates megafaunal community differed in relation to physical seafloor disturbance, proximity to the hydrate mounds and episodic food input, at varying degrees. Our work sets a solid base for the future real-time, long-term monitoring of ecosystem functioning and health status in deep-sea areas exposed to industrial substrate alterations (i.e. mining, fisheries, etc.).

中文翻译：

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使用互联网操作的爬虫作为生态状态评估工具对关键深海巨型动物进行可视化监测

靠近水合物丘作为额外的能源）。当动物群丰度的比率超过任何形态物种的预期范围时，模型结果用于建立潜在的触发通知程序，用于底物干扰监测。最后，使用个体和形态种累积曲线对爬虫作为多学科监测平台的性能进行了质量评估，这有助于优化和标准化数据收集协议。我们表明，水合物巨型动物群落的丰度和多样性在不同程度上与物理海底干扰、与水合物丘的接近程度和间歇性食物输入有关。我们的工作为未来的实时、