Biology of the Black Sea off the coast of south-eastern Crimea.

Abstract

Macrofauna were sampled during 27 cruise of RV 'Professor Vodyanitsky' in 1988 on Sudak- Karadag shelf (Black Sea off the coast of south-eastern Crimea) with "OCEAN" Grab 0.25 m-2, at depths from 20 to 110 m. The sampled material was washed mesh 1 mm sieve system a preserved in 75% alcohol, which is known to preserve morphological structures without distortion. We avoided prior fixation in formalin in order to not damage calcareous taxa. For each species, the average abundance was N, ind. m-2, the average wet biomass was B, g m-2, the number of species. The communities of the mollusks Modiolula phaseolina Philippi, 1844, Gouldia minima (Montagu, 1803), Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819, M. phaseolina, M. galloprovincialis - M. phaseolina, Gibbomodiola adriatica (Lamarck, 1819), and polychaetes Terebellides stroemii Sars, 1835 have been registered. Investigation of the bottom sediments, located at depths below the 90 m isobath, i.e. at 100, 110 m, macrobenthos was not detected.