Species richness and taxonomic composition of trawl macrofauna of the North Pacific and its adjacent seas.

A checklist is presented of animal species obtained in 68,903 trawl tows during 459 research surveys performed by the Pacific Research Fisheries Center (TINRO-Center) over an area measuring nearly 25 million km in the Chukchi and Bering seas, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan and North Pacific Ocean in 1977-2014 at depths of 5 to 2,200 m. The checklist comprises 949 fish species, 588 invertebrate species, and four cyclostome species (some specimens were identified only to genus or family level). For each species details are given on the type of trawl (benthic and/or pelagic) and basins where the species was found. Comprehensiveness of data, taxonomic composition of catches, dependence of species richness on the survey area, sample size, and habitat, are considered. Ratios of various taxonomic groups of trawl macrofauna in pelagic and benthic zones and in different basins are analysed. Basins are compared based on species composition.