Samples for fecal pellet flux were collected with short-term drifting sediment traps between 75° and 85°N in the northern Barents Sea with R/V Kronprins Haakon in May 2021 as part of the Nansen Legacy project (cruise 2021704, Q2). High-density bottom water was collected at the station and filtered (Whatman GF/F 0.7µm), and then filled into the trap cylinders (KC Denmark, aspect ratio >6) prior to their deployment. Afterwards, the sediment traps were deployed with 2 or 4 cylinders at each depth (30, 40, 60, 90, 120, 200m) for a duration between 12 to 27 hours. Depending on the sea ice conditions, the sediment traps were deployed in open water, anchored to a sea ice floe or within an ice lead. At selected stations, single trap cylinders were deployed by divers 1m below the sea ice. Upon retrieval, the content of the cylinders from each depth was pooled and stored at 4°C in dark until further analyses. For the microscopic examination of fecal pellets, a subsample of 250ml was transferred to a plastic bottle and fixed with hexamine-buffered 37% formaldehyde (final pH = 7) to a final concentration of 4%. A subsample of 25-100ml was settled in Utermoehl sedimentation chambers for a duration of 24h. Subsequently, the fecal pellets were enumerated, with measurements taken for the length and width of each individual pellet using a Leica inverted microscope. Additionally, the conditionof each pellet was documented, distinguishing between intact pellets, end pieces and mid pieces. Long and cylindrical pellets were attributed to calanoid copepods, small ellipsoid pellets to appendicularians, and larger strings with cut ends to euphausiids (Dybwad et al. 2021). Larger and irregularly shaped ellipsoid pellets were attributed to chaetognaths (Dilling and Alldredge 1993; Giesecke et al. 2010). Micropellets were disregarded in the analysis. Based on the pellet types, the volume for each pellet was calculated and their carbon content was assessed using empirical conversion factors of 94.3 µg C mm-3 for copepod, 45.1 µg C mm-3 for krill and 25.1 µg C mm-3 for appendicularian pellets after Wexels Riser et al. (2007), 12.73 µg C mm-3 for chaetognath pellets after Giesecke et al. (2010). Unidentified pellets were assigned a value of 69.4 µg C mm-3 based on Riebesell et al. (1995).