Abrasion and algal fouling of coarse material on the Murman littoral

On the Murmansk coast of the Barents Sea the boulder littoral zone is widely spread mostly covered by Fucus communities. This is one of the most productive benthic communities of the Barents Sea. The studies of intertidal communities have the long history, but the dynamics of intertidal ecosystems due to surf and storms is not clear. The goal of the work is to identify the leading factors that determine the rate of abrasion of coarse material and fouling algae-macrophytes of the intertidal zone of Murman. The study has been conducted in the Zelenetskaya Bay of the Barents Sea on the basis of the biological station of the MMBI KSC RAS. The rate of abrasion has been carried out during 2004-2013, phyto-overgrowing - 2009-2013. In three pilot landfills 12 samples of coarse material have been exposed during the year (from July to next July). The weight change of the sample as well as species composition and biomass of algae of fouling communities have been investigated. The influence of the surf intensity, temperature of water and air has been analyzed (univariate analysis of variance ANOVA has been applied). It has been shown that on the littoral of the Murmansk coast the abrasion of coarse material is determined primarily by the number of storms, so the storm rate has been proposed. It has been revealed that the density of fouling boulders with macroalgae depends primarily on the intensity of the surf and the average gradient of air temperature. The basis for the emerging communities of annual species are green ( Acrosiphonia arcta, Blidingia minima, Spongomorpha aeruginosa ) and brown algae ( Pylaiella littoralis, Dictyosiphon chordaria ). These algae groups are found everywhere in Fucus communities of the boulder intertidal zone of the Murman coast and probably they are the intermediate stage of fouling the coarse-grained material.