(Comiso et al., 2008), whilst the summer sea ice extent has shrunk even more rapidly. According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), arctic sea ice during the 2012 melt season has reached [...] changes in the transition zone between the northern North Atlantic and the central Arctic Ocean, and to determine experimentally the factors controlling deep-sea biodiversity, the AWI established the LTER (Long-Term [...] surveys registering floating debris at the sea surface. During the second week of the cruise, we mainly operated in front of Kongsfjorden and off northeast and north Svalbard. Slightly impeded by the rather