The sustainable development and environmental protection of the Arctic ecosystem is on the agenda globally. The Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals call for conserving at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas globally. Management tools to achieve this goal include marine protected areas (MPAs) and “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs) of structural megabenthic organisms (e.g. corals, sea pens, sponges, anemones, etc.). But large areas of the ocean are lacking information about seabed communities. Here we show that this data gap can potentially be filled by collecting data on megabenthic organisms that are “bycatch” (not the target species) on government research vessels monitoring commercial fish and shellfish. For this paper, several Arctic and sub-arctic nations contributed megabenthos data from a total of 12.569 fish assessment trawls and associated bottom water temperature data. The latter outline areas of warm sub-Arctic inflow versus colder Arctic waters, which we align with temperature affinities of community. We also found that maximum levels of shared taxa were higher between Atlantic and Eurasian Arctic Seas than with Pacific Arctic Seas. Areas of high standardized species richness generally, but not everywhere, coincided with areas of high standardized biomass and/or high current velocity and in transition zones between water masses. We did not find that standardized taxon richness declined with latitude (from 60 to 81°N) as has been previously hypothesized. High biomass was generally associated with Arctic outflow shelves and/ or (within-region) colder water masses. We identify areas with high proportions of sessile and upright taxa that may be susceptible to damage by bottom trawl gear, taxa with calcareous skeletons that may be susceptible to ocean acidification, and 'cold-water' taxa that may be most vulnerable to ocean warming. Our results demonstrate the feasibility and value of international collaboration and cooperation in understanding large-scale patterns of Arctic megabenthic communities and providing scientific advice for management of human activities in the global Arctic ecosystem.

北极生态系统的可持续发展和环境保护已被提上全球议程。《生物多样性公约》（CBD）和联合国可持续发展目标呼吁保护全球至少 10% 的沿海和海洋区域。实现这一目标的管理工具包括海洋保护区（MPA）和结构性巨型底栖生物（例如珊瑚、海围栏、海绵、海葵等）的“其他有效的基于区域的保护措施”（OECM）。但是海洋的大部分区域都缺乏有关海底群落的信息。在这里，我们表明，通过在监测商业鱼类和贝类的政府研究船上收集“副渔获物”（不是目标物种）的巨型底栖生物的数据，可以潜在地填补这一数据空白。对于这篇论文，几个北极和亚北极国家提供了来自总共 12.569 条鱼类评估拖网和相关底层水温数据的巨型底栖动物数据。后者勾勒出温暖的亚北极流入与较冷的北极水域的区域，我们将其与社区的温度亲和力保持一致。我们还发现大西洋和欧亚北极海之间共享类群的最高水平高于太平洋北极海。高度标准化物种丰富度的区域通常（但并非所有地方）与高度标准化的生物量和/或高流速区域以及水团之间的过渡区重合。我们没有发现标准化的分类群丰富度随着纬度（从 60 到 81°N）而下降，正如之前假设的那样。高生物量通常与北极流出大陆架和/或（区域内）较冷的水团有关。我们确定了高比例的无柄和直立类群可能容易受到底拖网装置损坏的区域，具有钙质骨骼的类群可能容易受到海洋酸化的影响，以及可能最容易受到海洋变暖影响的“冷水”类群。我们的研究结果证明了国际合作与合作在了解北极巨型底栖动物群落的大规模模式和为管理全球北极生态系统中的人类活动提供科学建议方面的可行性和价值。具有钙质骨骼的类群可能容易受到海洋酸化的影响，而“冷水”类群可能最容易受到海洋变暖的影响。我们的研究结果证明了国际合作与合作在了解北极巨型底栖动物群落的大规模模式和为管理全球北极生态系统中的人类活动提供科学建议方面的可行性和价值。具有钙质骨骼的类群可能容易受到海洋酸化的影响，而“冷水”类群可能最容易受到海洋变暖的影响。我们的研究结果证明了国际合作与合作在了解北极巨型底栖动物群落的大规模模式和为管理全球北极生态系统中的人类活动提供科学建议方面的可行性和价值。