Description: Only two species of crustacean Cumacea have been reported in publications for the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench area after nine expeditions on board of the RV “Vityaz”. During the KuramBio expedition 2012 to the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and the adjacent abyssal plain at depths 4830–5780 m no less than 72 species of cumaceans from 23 genera and 6 families were sampled. Five genera were recorded for the first time in the studied region: the genera Pseudoleptostyloides and Platycuma were detected for the first time for the Pacific Ocean; Cyclaspoides, Bathylamprops and Styloptocuma were firstly sampled in North Pacific. About 90% of the sampled species appear to be new to science. Three new deep-sea cumacean species and one new genus from the Kurile Kamchatka area are described in the present paper: Abyssoleucon tzarevae gen. n., sp. n. belonging to the family Leuconidae, Cyclaspoides borisovetsi sp. n. and Bathycuma sonne sp. n. of the family Bodotriidae. A distribution map for the species of the genus Cyclaspoides is provided.

Description: Abyssal macrofaunal composition of 21 epibenthic sledge hauls from twelve stations taken in the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench (KKT) and at the adjacent abyssal plain, Northwest Pacific, is presented. Sampling with the fine meshed epibenthic sledge yielded higher abundances and species richness than was reported from previous expeditions from board of RV Vityaz. In total 84,651 invertebrates were sampled with RV Sonne between July and September of 2012 (31,854 invertebrates if standardised for 1000 m2 trawled distances) from 41 taxa of different taxonomic ranks (15 phyla, 28 classes, 7 orders) were sampled from a trawled area of 53,708 m² and have been analyzed. Few taxa were frequent and most taxa were rare in the samples, twelve taxa occurred with more than 1% frequency. Of these, the Polychaeta were most abundant followed by the benthic Copepoda and Isopoda. Total numbers of individuals varied between stations and were highest with 4238 individuals at station 2-10 close to the KKT in 4865 m depth and lowest with 374 individuals at station 6-11 in 5305 m depth. At this station also the lowest number of taxa occurred (18 taxa) while the highest number occurred with 31 taxa at station 3-9 in 4991 m depth. Numbers of individuals decreased with increasing depth between 4830 and 5780 m. Crustaceans of the superorder Peracarida were one of the dominating taxa with four orders occurring frequently in most samples. In total, Isopoda were most important and occurred with 59% of all peracarid orders sampled, followed by Amphipoda with 21%, Tanaidacea with 11%, Cumacea with 9%, and Mysidacea with 〈1%. The communities of the stations (and hauls) of the KKT abyssal area differ in terms of taxon composition from each other. A cluster analysis (nMDS) performed for all sampled stations revealed no clear pattern of community similarity between stations or hauls. All hauls close to the trench (2-9 and 2-10 close to the eastern slope of the KKT; and 3-9 and 4-3 at the western slope) were most different to the other hauls. Hauls 8-9 and 8-12 as well as 5-10 and 7-10 in the approximate centre of the overall research area were most similar (88% similarity). The non-isolated KKT area is characterized by higher abundances and higher benthic species richness than the geographically isolated and young deep-sea basin of the Sea of Japan.