Long-term fluctuations of soft-bottom intertidal community structure affected by ice cover at two small sea bights in the Chupa Inlet (Kandalaksha Bay) of the White Sea

Abstract

The effect on bottom organisms of periodic freezing of the upper layer of intertidal sediments during abnormal cold winters has been studied for a long time in seas of a moderate climatic zone. However, the effect of ice cover every year on intertidal communities in polar seas is still poorly investigated. Seasonal and long-term variation in the structure of intertidal soft-bottom communities in two small bights in the White Sea with annual ice cover was studied for over two decades. Sampling was carried out four times a year, in the hydrological spring, summer, autumn, and winter. It was found that bottom macrobenthic communities at upper and lower horizons of the intertidal distinctly differed in the studied sites. Periodic changes caused by the effect of abnormal ice conditions, including the partial removal by ice of sediment with in situ organisms, were discovered. Recovery of communities after disturbance normally took less than half a year. Communities at the lower and upper horizons of the intertidal zone were more stable than intermediate communities, which led to periodic shifts of the biological border between lower and upper intertidal assemblages.