Distribution of zoobenthos on soft bottom in the Ivanovskaya and Drozdovka bays of the eastern Murman coast

Abstract

353 The coastal zone of the eastern Murman is sub� jected to intense anthropogenic activity in the spheres of power engineering, oil and gas industry, fishery and tourism. Therefore, at present, the necessity arises of broadening the knowledge about the state of the envi� ronment and, in particular, of the state of the bottom fauna in this poorly studied region of the Barents Sea. From the scientific point of view, this area of the sea is of interest because it is subjected to the effect of the coastal branch of the warm Murmansk current, which creates unique conditions for the development of the bottom fauna dependent on fluctuations of water heat content [1, 2]. To date, the zoobenthos has been stud� ied in some bays of the eastern Murman (Yarnyshnaya, Zelenetskaya, and Dolgaya bays) and in the water area within the 12�mile zone along the Kola Peninsula [1–8]. The goal of this work was to study the pattern of zoob� enthos distribution in poorly studied bays of the Mur� man coast, which are the most remote eastwards. The studies were conducted in the neighboring Drozdovka and Ivanovskaya bays, which are located in the utmost east of the region (Fig. 1). The Ivanovskaya Bay cuts more than 20 km inland in the southeastern direction, and the Drozdovka Bay runs 8.5 km inland in the south. In the part remote from the coast towards the open sea, the bays are separated by Nokuyev Island. The Drozdovka Bay juts out into the sea as a wide mouth and the Ivanovskaya Bay is connected with the sea via a narrow channel 25–27 m in depth. The depth of the Drozdovka Bay decreases from the mouth to the apex of the bay and almost one third of the bay area has a depth less than 5 m. The bottom relief in the Ivanovskaya Bay is characterized by the presence no less than four basins 30–55 m in depth separated by three rapids. Rapids impede the water exchange between the bay parts. The water composi� tion in the bays is of marine character except the estu� aries located in their heads [9]. Zoobenthos samples were collected in August 2011 mainly by the diving method using a specially designed frame 0.0625 m 2 in size, which was equipped with a detachable bag, and in the open part of the Nokuyevsky Bay, samples were collected from board of the small vessel RMN 1066 Viking 1 with a Van Veen grab (0.1 m 2 ). At each station, sampling was made in