The inhabitants of the spring ice, under-ice water, and sediments of the white sea in the estuarine zone of the Severnaya Dvina River

Abstract

The data on the supra-ice snow, ice, under-ice water, and benthic algal flora obtained in 2007–2008 by sampling in the estuary of the Severnaya Dvina River are analyzed. The river ice and under-ice water in the estuarine zone and in the channel part of the Severnaya Dvina differed greatly in the algal flora’s composition. The fresh water species never exceeded 8.6%, while the ice algae composed 90–96% of the total ice inhabitants’ biomass. In the under-ice water, this value did not exceed 58–64%. The bacteria in the ice composed not more than 2.5–10% of the total biomass, while, in the under-ice water, 36–49%. The shares of ciliates (0.04%) and nematodes (0.005–1.6%) in the total biomass were negligible. In the estuarine zone, the ice was inhabited mainly by nematodes (78% of the total biomass), while, in the river, their share decreased to 9%. The contribution of bacteria was 15% in Dvina Bay and increased to 61% in the river. The importance of algae in the snow was minor: 7% of the total biomass in the marine zone and 30% in the river region. High species diversity of the algal flora in the sandy and sandy-silty littoral grounds was revealed. The values of the total biomass of the bottom algal flora (0.38 g C/m2) were only two to three times lower than the values revealed in similar habitats in the summer. The epipelithic forms (0.15 g C/m2) dominated, being represented by 46 species of algae (49%). The shares of epipsammonic (0.12 g C/m2) and planktonic (0.11 g C/m2) species were almost equal to each other: 25 and 22 species, respectively (27 and 24%).