Syllidae (Polychaeta) from the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 1041-1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ramos ◽  
G. San Martín ◽  
A. Sikorski

A collection of over one hundred specimens of Syllidae (Polychaeta) from the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions has been examined and identified. The specimens were obtained from 26 stations in the Barents Sea, some Norwegian fiords and localities of the northern North Sea. A total of 21 species were identified; three species (Myrianida langerhansi (Gidholm, 1967), Syllides longocirrata Örsted, 1845 and Sphaerosyllis taylori Perkins, 1981) are new reports for the Arctic Ocean; 2 species are new to science, Streptodonta exsulis sp. nov. and Trypanosyllis troll sp. nov. Streptodonta exsulis sp. nov. have 4 thick, distally strongly knobbed aciculae on each anterior parapodia, shifting to a single, slender acicula on posterior parapodia; falcigers and pseudospinigers distally bidentate; and pharyngeal tooth located centrally and relatively close to anterior rim of pharynx. Trypanosyllis troll sp. nov. have 2, occasionally 3 straight aciculae in parapodia protruding out from parapodial lobes; falcigers bidentate; and body surface densely covered by numerous, small papillae. Based on the description of these 2 new species, some modifications are proposed in the diagnoses of the genera Streptodonta San Martín & Hutchings, 2006 and Trypanosyllis Claparède, 1864.

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Sikorski ◽  
Lyudmila Pavlova

<p>The species <em>Scolelepis finmarchicus</em> sp. nov. is described from the Norwegian and Barents Seas along the northern Norwegian coast and Kola peninsula. The occurrence of this species in the Kola Bay could be seen as a sign of climate warming in the area. Taxonomic issues existing in the genus <em>Scolelepis</em> within the area along the Norwegian coast and in the Barents Sea are briefly touched upon. Seven species belonging to <em>Scolelepis</em> have recently been recorded from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. <em>Scolelepis</em> (<em>S</em>.) <em>matsugae</em> Sikorski, 1994 is newly synonymized with <em>S</em>. (<em>S</em>.) <em>laonicola</em> (Tzetlin, 1985). This article provides a brief review of <em>Scolelepis</em> together with an identification key for the genus from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic</p>


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1170
Author(s):  
Sergey Sakerin ◽  
Dmitry Kabanov ◽  
Valery Makarov ◽  
Viktor Pol’kin ◽  
Svetlana Popova ◽  
...  

The results from studies of aerosol in the Arctic atmosphere are presented: the aerosol optical depth (AOD), the concentrations of aerosol and black carbon, as well as the chemical composition of the aerosol. The average aerosol characteristics, measured during nine expeditions (2007–2018) in the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean, had been 0.068 for AOD (0.5 µm); 2.95 cm−3 for particle number concentrations; 32.1 ng/m3 for black carbon mass concentrations. Approximately two–fold decrease of the average characteristics in the eastern direction (from the Barents Sea to Chukchi Sea) is revealed in aerosol spatial distribution. The average aerosol characteristics over the Barents Sea decrease in the northern direction: black carbon concentrations by a factor of 1.5; particle concentrations by a factor of 3.7. These features of the spatial distribution are caused mainly by changes in the content of fine aerosol, namely: by outflows of smokes from forest fires and anthropogenic aerosol. We considered separately the measurements of aerosol characteristics during two expeditions in 2019: in the north of the Barents Sea (April) and along the Northern Sea Route (July–September). In the second expedition the average aerosol characteristics turned out to be larger than multiyear values: AOD reached 0.36, particle concentration up to 8.6 cm−3, and black carbon concentration up to 179 ng/m3. The increased aerosol content was affected by frequent outflows of smoke from forest fires. The main (99%) contribution to the elemental composition of aerosol in the study regions was due to Ca, K, Fe, Zn, Br, Ni, Cu, Mn, and Sr. The spatial distribution of the chemical composition of aerosols was analogous to that of microphysical characteristics. The lowest concentrations of organic and elemental carbon (OC, EC) and of most elements are observed in April in the north of the Barents Sea, and the maximal concentrations in Far East seas and in the south of the Barents Sea. The average contents of carbon in aerosol over seas of the Asian sector of the Arctic Ocean are OC = 629 ng/m3, EC = 47 ng/m3.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Chafik ◽  
Sara Broomé

&lt;p&gt;The Arctic Ocean has been receiving&amp;#160;more of the warm and saline Atlantic Water in the past&amp;#160;decades. This water mass enters the Arctic Ocean via two Arctic gateways: the Barents Sea Opening and the Fram Strait.&amp;#160;Here, we focus on the fractionation of Atlantic Water at these two gateways using a Lagrangian approach based on satellite-derived geostrophic velocities.&amp;#160;Simulated particles are released at 70N at the inner and outer branch of the North Atlantic current system&amp;#160;in the Nordic Seas. The trajectories toward the Fram Strait and Barents Sea Opening&amp;#160;are found to be&amp;#160;largely steered by the bottom topography and there is an indication of an&amp;#160;anti-phase relationship in the number of particles reaching the gateways. There is, however, a significant&amp;#160;cross-over of particles from the outer branch to the inner branch and into the Barents Sea, which is&amp;#160;found to be related to high eddy kinetic energy between the branches. This cross-over may be important for Arctic climate variability.&lt;/p&gt;


2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 897-931
Author(s):  
R. C. Levine ◽  
D. J. Webb

Abstract. Following meteorological practice the definition of available potential energy in the ocean is conventionally defined in terms of the properties of the global ocean. However there is also a requirement for a localised definition, for example the energy released when shelf water cascades down a continental shelf in the Arctic and enters a boundary current. In this note we start from first principals to obtain an exact expression for the available energy (AE) in such a situation. We show that the available energy depends on enstrophy and gravity. We also show that it is exactly equal to the work done by the pressure gradient and by buoyancy. The results are used to investigate the distribution of AE in the Barents Sea and surrounding regions relative to the interior of the Arctic Ocean. We find that water entering the Barents Sea from the Atlantic already has a high AE, that it is increased by cooling but that much of the increase is lost overcoming turbulence during the passage through the region to the Arctic Ocean. However on entering the Arctic enough available energy remains to drive a significant current around the margin of the ocean. The core of raised available energy also acts as a tracer which can be followed along the continental slope beyond the dateline.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Ivanov ◽  
Ivan Frolov ◽  
Kirill Filchuk

&lt;p&gt;In the recent few years the topic of accelerated sea ice loss, and related changes in the vertical structure of water masses in the East-Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean, including the Barents Sea and the western part of the Nansen Basin, has been in the foci of multiple studies. This region even earned the name the &amp;#8220;Arctic warming hotspot&amp;#8221;, due to the extreme retreat of sea ice and clear signs of change in the vertical hydrographic structure from the Arctic type to the sub-Arctic one. A gradual increase in temperature and salinity in this area has been observed since the mid-2000s. This trend is hypothetically associated with a general decrease in the volume of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which leads to a decrease of ice import in the Barents Sea, salinization, weakening of density stratification, intensification of vertical mixing and an increase of heat and salt fluxes from the deep to the upper mixed layer. The result of such changes is a further reduction of sea ice, i.e. implementation of positive feedback, which is conventionally refereed as the &amp;#8220;atlantification. Due to the fact that the Barents Sea is a relatively shallow basin, the process of atlantification might develop here much faster than in the deep Nansen Basin. Thus, theoretically, the hydrographic regime in the northern part of the Barents Sea may rapidly transform to a &amp;#8220;Nordic Seas &amp;#8211; wise&amp;#8221;, a characteristic feature of which is the year-round absence of the ice cover with debatable consequences for the climate and ecosystem of the region and adjacent land areas. Due to the obvious reasons, historical observations in the Barents Sea mostly cover the summer season. Here we present a rare oceanographic data, collected during the late winter - early spring in 2019. Measurements were occupied at four sequential oceanographic surveys from the boundary between the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea &amp;#8211; the so called Barents Sea opening to the boundary between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Completed hydrological sections allowed us to estimate the contribution of the winter processes in the Atlantic Water transformation at the end of the winter season. Characteristic feature of the observed transformation is the homogenization of the near-to-bottom part of the water column with remaining stratification in the upper part. A probable explanation of such changes is the dominance of shelf convection and cascading of dense water over the open sea convection. In this case, complete homogenization of the water column does not occur, since convection in the open sea is impeded by salinity and density stratification, which is maintained by melting of the imported sea ice in the relatively warm water. The study was supported by RFBR grant # 18-05-60083.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 318-327
Author(s):  
F. K. Tuzov

The article discusses the possible relationship between changes in the ice cover area of the shelf seas of the Arctic Ocean and the intensity of dense water cascading, based on calculation data obtained with the NEMO model for the period 1986–2010, with the findings issued at 5-day intervals and a spatial resolution of 1/10°. The cascading cases were calculated using an innovative method developed by the author. The work is based on the assumption that as the ice cover in the seas retreats, the formation of cooled dense water masses is intensified, which submerge and flow down the slope from the shelf to great depths. Thus, in the Arctic shelf seas, the mechanism of water densification due to cooling is added to the mechanism of water densification during ice formation, or, replaces it for certain regions. It was found that in the Barents Sea, the Laptev Sea and the Beaufort Sea, a decrease in the ice cover area causes an increase in the number of cases of cascading. However, in most of the Arctic seas, as the area of ice cover decreases, the number of cases of cascading also decreases. As a consequence, for the whole Arctic shelf area, the number of cases of cascading also decreases with decreasing ice cover. It is shown that in the Beaufort Sea the maximum number of cascading cases was observed in the winter period of 2007–2008, which was preceded by the summer minimum of the ice cover area in the Arctic Ocean. In the Barents Sea after 2000, a situation has been observed where the ice area has been decreasing to zero values, whereas the number of cascading cases has for some time (1 month approximately) remained close to high winter values. This possibly means that the cooling and densification of the waters in ice-free areas occurs due to thermal convection. Based on the calculation of the number of cases of cascading, it can be argued that the intensification of cascading due to a reduction in the ice cover is a feature of individual seas of the Arctic Ocean, those in which there is no excessive freshening of the upper water layer due to ice melting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-63
Author(s):  
Ivan O. Nekhaev

New findings of four gastropod species: Melanella laurae, Hemiaclis ventrosa (family Eulimidae), Chrysallida sublustris and Odostomia acuta (family Pyramidellidae) are described. O. acuta was previously confused by Russian authors with H. ventrosa, distribution of both species in the Barents Sea is limited to the coastal waters of Finmark and Murman. M. laurae and C. sublustris were found for the first time in the adjacent to the Barents Sea parts of the Arctic Ocean.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Mikhaylova

Abstract A lot of data on the flora of the Barents Sea are scattered in Russian publications and thus are largely inaccessible to many researchers. The study aims to compile a checklist and to verify the species composition of the Rhodophyta of the Barents Sea. The checklist is based on a comprehensive bibliographic study referring to a wide range of data on the species distribution, from the oldest to the most recent, indispensable for analyzing the temporal variability of the Barents Sea flora. A careful revision allows the report of 82 species of Rhodophyta, whereas 36 species have been excluded as belonging to doubtful records or misidentifications. The distribution of seven species in the Barents Sea is clarified. Seventeen species are widespread in the Barents Sea; 11 species are distributed locally. An extensive bibliography and data on the presence of the specimens in the herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences are provided.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Berdnikov ◽  
Vera Sorokina ◽  
Valerii Kulygin

&lt;p&gt;Changes in the Arctic environment in recent decades may result in favourable conditions for the increase of biological production. However, there are not many well-documented climate-related shifts in plankton, fish and benthic communities in the Arctic Ocean marine ecosystems, and there is significant uncertainty about the present and future productivity values. Researchers often estimate (using forecasts, etc.) how some key stocks may respond to future climatic changes to assess the prospects of fisheries.&lt;br&gt;In our study, applying the Ecopath multi-species balance production model, we estimated the distribution of climate-induced primary productivity increase, along the food web in the Barents Sea ecosystem. Assessment was made for two periods (&amp;#8220;cold&amp;#8221; (1970-1990) and &amp;#8220;warm&amp;#8221; (1991-2016)) and three regions - the Southern Barents Sea and the adjacent areas of the Norwegian Sea, the Svalbard Archipelago region, and the Northern Barents Sea. For each identified area, the food web has differences in both the structure and quantitative indices (for example, in abundance and biomass) of different trophic groups in different periods, in particular, during the increased ice coverage and relative warming.&lt;br&gt;We propose a new approach to assess food rations for the Ecopath model. It allows to consider more flexibly the change in the ecosystem food structure, associated with changes in biomasses (stocks) and the appearance of new species in the studied area due to environmental fluctuations related to marine climate warming. Based on the simulation results, we made conclusions concerning the observed and probable changes, related to the primary productivity increase, in the considered ecosystems of the three identified Barents Sea regions.&lt;br&gt;An integral indicator of the mean trophic level reflects climate-induced changes in the Barents Sea ecosystem. It remained almost unchanged in the southern region but increased for the Northern region and the Svalbard region. This is due to the fact that new species appeared in the structure of food webs of these regions and/or the existed species' biomass (stocks) changed during the warm period when compared to the cold one.&lt;br&gt;&amp;#1040; generalized indicator of biological diversity is an additional evidence of climate-induced changes in the primary production. During the warm period, the Shannon Biodiversity Index for the Northern and the Svalbard regions increases, while it decreases in the Southern region mainly because the biomass of the main trophic groups (cod, herring) increases.&lt;br&gt;The commercial fishing increase in the Northern and the Svalbard Archipelago regions is likely to be expected. However, there is a possibility that there will be increased stratification between the upper cold and less salty water masses formed by melt ice and the Atlantic water below, which becomes cooler and denser. This can lead to the decrease in the nutrients content of the productive zone and prevent the positive effects of the warm water inflow.&lt;/p&gt;


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