In an extensive and rigorous study of animal life on the Central Arctic Ocean floor, researchers have shown that water depth and food availability influence the species composition, density, and biomass of benthic communities, according to a study published October 17, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. The study, led by a team including Antje Boetius of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, also confirmed for the first time that species diversity on the Arctic floor display a similar depth-related pattern to that seen in more temperate waters.