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Phytoplankton Communities in the Southeastern Barents Sea and the Southwestern Kara Sea as Indicators of the Phytogeographic Status of These Regions

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Abstract

The paper describes the results of a complex study of phytoplankton carried out at the end of August to the first half of September 2020 in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea and the southwestern part of the Kara Sea simultaneously with the determination of hydrological and hydrochemical characteristics. The taxonomic list of microalgae found in the studied area included 35 representatives identified to species. Of these, 14 (40%) were found in both basins. In the Pechora Sea, the average number of phytoplankton in the water column varied from 10 650 to 41 840 cells/L, and the biomass varied from 71.04 to 300.55 μg/L; in the southwestern part of the Kara Sea, the values of these indicators were 3510–28 420 cells/L and 16.31–66.96 μg/L, respectively. Both communities were at the autumn stage of seasonal succession; in terms of biomass, forms of arcto-boreal origin, predominantly oceanic, prevailed, and in the list of dominants, large-celled centric diatoms and dinoflagellates accounted for equal proportions. Species not exhibiting high abundance values were distinguished by a great degree of patchiness in spatial distribution: they were present at a small number of stations and not in all seawater layers. Thus, the results of the comparative analysis allow us to assert that the pelagic algocenoses of the compared regions, despite the difference in the hydrological parameters, were characterized by a significant degree of similarity. In general, the situation described confirms the hypothesis of the floristic unity of the southeastern part of the Barents Sea and the southwestern part of the Kara Sea.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We sincerely thank the staff of the Plankton Laboratory of the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, for their help in collecting and processing the material.

Funding

This work was supported financially by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

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  1. Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 183010, Murmansk, Russia

    P. R. Makarevich, V. V. Larionov, V. V. Vodopyanova & T. G. Ishkulova

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  1. P. R. Makarevich
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  2. V. V. Larionov
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Makarevich, P.R., Larionov, V.V., Vodopyanova, V.V. et al. Phytoplankton Communities in the Southeastern Barents Sea and the Southwestern Kara Sea as Indicators of the Phytogeographic Status of These Regions. Biol Bull Rev 13, 469–481 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086423050122

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