Establishing robust estimates of polar marine biodiversity is important for interpreting future changes in the Arctic; however, despite a recent increase in scientific expeditions, this region remains relatively underexplored. Particularly overlooked in biodiversity assessments are small species, such as protists, fungi, and many small invertebrates that are collectively known as meiofauna. These species contribute to the foundation of food webs and are crucial for the survival of larger species that are economically and socially important. The application of high-throughput sequencing methodologies has proven effective for biomonitoring small metazoan species but has sparingly been applied in the Arctic. We used a metabarcoding approach to assess the diversity of sea ice and sediment-associated metazoans from Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska. Sea ice and sediment samples were collected six times over eight months (January through August) encompassing three seasons (winter, spring, and summer) from polar night to ice-out in August. Biodiversity was assessed as both richness and community composition by incorporating incidence data and phylogenetic distance. Environmental conditions associated with ice, sediment, water, and snow were measured and tested for possible correlations with biodiversity estimates. We found a high number of taxa distributed locally, suggesting that metabarcoding can be effectively applied to Arctic biomonitoring programs. In addition, these results show that season and habitat are significant predictors of meiofaunal biodiversity, supporting hypotheses that meiofauna can be used as a valuable indicator of climate change.

建立北极海洋生物多样性的可靠估计对于解释北极地区未来的变化非常重要；然而，尽管最近科学考察活动有所增加，但该地区的开发仍相对不足。在生物多样性评估中尤其被忽视的是小物种，例如原生生物，真菌和许多小型无脊椎动物，这些动物统称为meiofauna。这些物种有助于食物网的建立，对于具有经济和社会意义的较大物种的生存至关重要。高通量测序方法的应用已被证明可有效监测小型后生动物，但在北极却很少使用。我们使用元条形码方法评估了来自阿拉斯加Utqiaġvik（Barrow）的海冰和与沉积物相关的后生动物的多样性。从极夜到八月的冰消期，在八个月（一月至八月）的六个月中，收集了六次海冰和沉积物样本，涵盖三个季节（冬季，春季和夏季）。通过纳入发病率数据和系统发育距离，将生物多样性评估为丰富度和群落组成。对与冰，沉积物，水和雪相关的环境条件进行了测量并测试了与生物多样性估计之间可能的相关性。我们发现大量的类群分布在本地，这表明元条形码可以有效地应用于北极生物监测程序。此外，这些结果表明季节和栖息地是淡紫色植物生物多样性的重要预测指标，支持了淡水动物可以用作气候变化的重要指标的假设。