Sampling was conducted with a TV-guided multiple corer (MUC), in order to retrieve undisturbed sediment cores. Upon retrieval of the MUC, the overlying water was carefully removed from each core and the core was cut into the following sediment horizons using a steel plate and a custom-made plastic ring: 0-1 cm, 1-5 cm, 5-10 cm. At each station, sediment samples from three replicate cores were pooled and transferred to a cooling container (0°C), where subsamples for chloroplastic pigment analyses were taken and processed directly on board.Chloroplastic pigments were extracted from 1 ml sediment with 3 x 8 ml acetone (90%), including the addition of glass beads and grinding of the samples in a cell mill according to Boetius & Damm 1998 (doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(97)00052-6). Samples were centrifuged and chlorophyll a and phaeopigment (after addition of 250 µl 25% HCl) concentrations were determined in the superanatant by fluorometric measurement with a Turner Trilogy fluorometer. Measurements were performed in triplicate for each sample.