Affiliation:
1. Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya Emb. 7/9, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Abstract
The study of interannual changes in the structure of soft soil macrobenthic communities was carried out on the basis of material collected in three littoral sites in the waters of the Keret archipelago of the White Sea in 1983– 2013. The analyzed sites differed in biotopic heterogeneity (characteristics of the soil, degree of closure of water areas, salinity regime). This is a sandy beach in a seaward zone, and two silt-sandy beaches in a semi-enclosed and practically closed water area. The latter is located near the mouth of the Keret River, and is also under the influence of lake runoff, respectively, experiencing a slight freshening. The distance between the sites does not exceed a few kilometers. At two sites, significant changes in the structure of macrobenthos were noted, up to a change in the species dominating in biomass. The study of conjugation of fluctuations in abundance and biomass of common species showed that most taxa demonstrate an independent change in abundance indicators. However, in areas where sea grasses dominated in biomass, the change in the number of significant correlations between taxa, both in abundance and biomass, in some years occurred in accordance with fluctuations in the biomass of Zostera marina Linnaeus, 1753. It was not possible to find climatic and hydrological indicators that would explain the interannual changes in macrobenthos abundance indicators at once in all sites, despite their slight distance from each other. Thus, the conducted studies showed that the structure of macrobenthos of soft soils in the dry zone and the upper sublittoral in the region of the Keret archipelago was distinguished by spatial and temporal heterogeneity, in which one can see a reflection of the biotopic heterogeneity of habitats, features of interspecific relationships, and dynamics of the structure of settlements of dominant species. Under relatively stable climatic, hydrological, and edaphic conditions, significant changes in the structure of the White Sea littoral bottom communities of soft bottoms were mainly determined by natural changes in the structure of settlements of dominant taxa.
Publisher
Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Subject
Insect Science,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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