Abstract
The macrozoobenthic investigation in the Sevastopol Bay was conducted from 2001 to 2013. In 2007, first individuals of Streblospio gynobranchiata Rice & Levin, 1998, exotic for the Black Sea, were found in samples of soft sediment from the bay. According to the records, by 2009, mean population density has increased to 703±43 ind.·m-2 and decreased to 465±56 ind.·m-2 by 2013. The spionid polychaetes S. gynobranchiata inhabit muddy seabed with vast admixture of pelitic silts (66±8%), at depths ranged from 2 to 17 m and seawater salinity from 14.3 to 17.7‰. As our experiments have shown, in warm (17–18°С) sea water S. gynobranchiata completed planktonic stage of development in 9–10 days; in the absence of adequate substrate this period lasted for about a month. Worms fully matured within 3.5 months since their appearance in plankton and started to reproduce in the fourth month. Such life strategy favours rapid spreading of S. gynobranchiata along the shoreline of the Black Sea.
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