Species composition and biogeographic structure of the polychaete fauna of the Pechora Sea during warming in the Arctic

• Published in: Morskoj biologičeskij žurnal (Online) Vol. 7; no. 2
• Main Authors: S. Yu. Gagaev, S. G. Denisenko, N. A. Strelkova, E. A. Frolova, A. V. Sikorski
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS 01.06.2022
• Subjects: biogeography; bioindicators; Pechora Sea; polychaete worms
• ISSN: 2499-9768; 2499-9776
• DOI: 10.21072/mbj.2022.07.2.02

A comprehensive study of benthos allows not only to see the current changes in benthic communities and better understand what happened to them in the past, but also to predict their future with a certain degree of reliability. Polychaete worms are one of the most numerous and significant groups of benthos, and those can serve as bioindicators of the state of the environment. This article attempts to analyze changes in the biogeographic groups of polychaetes in the Pechora Sea over a relatively long time period (  50 years) in order to understand whether the climate change affects the ratio of these groups and, consequently, whether polychaetes can serve as bioindicators to a certain degree. Based on the analysis of new data and material obtained earlier, a general list of polychaete worms of the Pechora Sea was formed. The list includes 198 taxa (out of them, 186 are identified down to a species level) belonging to 127 genera, 37 families, and 15 orders. The ratio of biogeographic groups of polychaetes in the Pechora Sea indicates the consistency of their biogeographic structure over the past 50 years and confirms the cyclicity of processes occurring in the Arctic.