Findings of new phytoplankton species in the Barents Sea as a consequence of global climate changes

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the Earth’s climate has been characterized by a stable increase in temperature, which in many regions leads to a change in the composition of flora and fauna. A striking manifestation of this process is the appearance in ecological communities of new, uncharacteristic for them, species of animals and plants. One of the most productive and at the same time the most vulnerable in this respect are the marine ecosystems of the Arctic. This article is devoted to the analysis of findings of vagrant phytoplankton species in the Barents Sea, a body of water experiencing especially rapid warming due to an increase in the volume and temperature of incoming Atlantic water. For the first time, fundamental questions are considered: how widely these species are distributed over the Barents Sea area, and in what seasons do they reach high levels of abundance. The material for the present work was planktonic collections made during expedition surveys of 2007–2019 in different seasons throughout the Barents Sea. The water samples were taken using a rosette Niskin bottle sampler. The plankton net with a 29 µm mesh size was applied for filtering. The obtained material was processed according to standard hydrobiological methods and followed by subsequent microscopy for taxonomic identification of organisms and cell counting. The results of our observations show that vagrant microplankton species do not create a stable population that persists throughout the annual development cycle. Their major presence is noted in the autumn-winter period, the smallest in the summer. The distribution of invaders is strictly tied to warm jets of currents, while the weakening of the inflow of Atlantic water masses deep into the Barents Sea from the west is a limiting factor for their penetration into its eastern part. The southwestern and western parts of the basin are characterized by the most significant number of floristic finds; from here, towards the north and east, their number decreases. It can be concluded that at present the proportion of vagrant species in the Barents Sea, both in species diversity and in the total biomass of the algocenosis, is insignificant. They do not change the structure of the community as a whole, and their presence does not have any negative impact on the ecosystem of the Barents Sea pelagic. However, at this stage of research, it is too early to predict the environmental consequences of the phenomenon under study. Given the growing number of recorded cases of finds of species uncharacteristic for the Arctic, there is a possibility that this process may disrupt the biological stability of the ecosystem and even lead to its destabilization.