Coral samples were collected in Pond Inlet and Lancaster Sound in Baffin Bay using the CCGS Amundsen’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Samples from Agassiz trawl and box-core deployments were also kept as part of this study (11 stations). Samples were collected between 253 and 856 m. Specimens were subsampled aboard and frozen for determination of their carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic composition, as well as for lipids and fatty acids composition, as part of a study focusing on the trophic ecology of cold-water corals. Carbon and Nitrogen stable isotope analysis as well as lipids/fatty acids analysis were performed on tissue samples of soft corals at the Stable Isotopes Laboratory and Lipids Laboratory, Memorial University, respectively.

An incubation experiment was conducted on board of the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen between 6 and 15 August 2015. The water was collected near the nitracline at 38 m depth in Baffin Bay using 12-L Niskin-type bottles deployed on a CTD rosette system. A natural Arctic plankton community in a pre-bloom stage (initial high nutrient-low Chl a concentrations) was exposed over 9 days to reduced pH conditions under two contrasting light regimes. The two light regimes were designed to simulate the mean irradiance in an ice-free 5-m thick surface mixed layer (HL, marginal ice bloom conditions) and the mean irradiance at 5 m depth under a melting ponded ice pack (LL, under-ice bloom/ subsurface chlorophyll maximum conditions). The pH gradient comprised 6 levels covering the range of pH expected between the present and the year 2300. During the incubation, a phytoplankton bloom developed in every incubation bag and diatoms dominated the biomass (Chaetoceros spp.). Temporal variations of pH, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, chlorophyll a, macronutrients, DMS(P), flow cytometry (nano- and pico-phytoplankton, bacteria, virus), taxonomy, salinity and incubator's temperature are available.

Bottom water (20 L per station) was collected at 11 stations in Baffin Bay using the CCGS Amundsen’s rosette system. Water was filtered aboard the vessel into glass microfiber (GF-F) filters for Carbon and Nitrogen stable isotopic composition analysis. These data will be used in combination with data on soft coral stable isotopic composition collected from the same region.