Bivalvia, Amphipoda, Cumacea and Mysidacea as well as inbenthic meiofaunal Nematoda occurred in higher numbers at the shallower stations and their numbers decreased with increasing depth.
It also appeared that the maximum endemic species richness was measured on the shallower stations, with narrow insular shelf, located on recent lava flows, near the lava flow from the eruption of 2007 (latest volcanic event).
Ophiuroids were dominating, followed by holothurians, and echinoids and asteroids which occurred in lower numbers and primarily at the shallower stations of transects A and B. Only 2163 individual anthozoans were recorded and these were mostly confined to the lower slope.
The shallower stations (G700 and W700) harboured more genera (127 and 112, respectively) than the deeper stations G1000 and W1000 (108 and 84 genera, respectively).
Both structural and trophic diversity were lower at the deeper stations than at the shallower stations within each study area, and both seemed to be controlled to some extent by trophic conditions (see DISTLM results, Table S6), something which is also supported by the observation that the quality of food at the deeper stations is lower than at the shallower stations (Fig. 2, 3).
Sampling was performed at two different depths, −5 m (shallow station) and −25 m (deep station) and at two different times of the day (day and night).
Ecological status classification using BQI showed good status of zoobenthos at shallow stations as being prevalent between 1987 and 2005.
Shallow stations are located in the Northeast and North whereas very deep-water stations are exclusively in the South and Southwest (Figure S2 and Figure S3).
Spawning cod sampled in 2002 2003 in the SW of Iceland, the area covered by this study, ranged from being predominantly of the Pan IAA genotype at the shallowest stations to predominantly of the Pan IBB and Pan IAB genotypes at the deeper stations (Pampoulie et al. 2006).
Echinoderms occurred frequently at the shallower slope stations.
