Macrobenthos of the Novaya Zemlya Trough

During the 54th cruise of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh the macrobenthos of the Novaya Zemlya Trough was studied using a Sigsby trawl along the submeridional transect near 75°30′N latitude at a depth range from 68 to 362 m. In total, 140 species of bottom animals were found. The relative role of the taxons was assessed using three indices: the number, biomass, and energy flow. Similarity indices were used for the comparison of the samples. The new material greatly contributes to the data on the composition of the fauna and the structure of the communities of the studied region. It was revealed that small scyphozoid polyps and sipunculoids play an important role in the trough’s community. The presence of the community dominated by Ophiocten sericeum (with the important role of small bivalves) was revealed for the first time not only at the eastern by also at the western slope of the Novaya Zemlya Trough. The sharpest changes in the composition and structure of the bottom community were confined to the zone of the transition from the trough floor to the slope. These changes are determined by the specificity of the macrorelief (of the floor and slope), the composition of the ground (soft brown silts abound in rhizopods and dense gray silts with an admixture of pebbles), and possibly by the hydrodynamic processes near the bottom.