S. Bijoy  Nandan¹ , Krishnapriya P. P.¹ , Akhilesh  Vijay¹ , Asha  C. V.¹ , Jayachandran  P. R.¹ , K. P.  Krishnan²

1. Dept. of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences,Cochin University of Science & Technology, Cochin 682 016, India
2. National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Goa 403 804
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 54   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0054
Received: 28 Oct., 2016    Accepted: 13 Dec., 2016    Published: 15 Dec., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Bijoy Nandan S., Krishnapriya P.P., Akhilesh V., Asha C.V., Jayachandran P.R., and Krishnan K.P., 2016, Benthic Faunal Assemblage of the Arctic Kongsfjorden System, Norway, International Journal of Marine Science, 6(54): 1-8 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0054)

Kongsfjord is an open glacial fjord on the west coast of Svalbard, located northwards to Norway. Benthic samples were collected from seven selected locations as a part of summer Phase III group 2 – Indian Arctic Expedition 2011. The characteristic macro benthic fauna observed in the soft bottom glacial community include Foraminifera, Nematoda, Polychaeta, Bivalvia, Amphipoda, Calanoid copepoda and Ostracoda, out of which polychaetes (59%) and nematodes (21%) were abundant. The meio benthic group was constituted by Nematoda, Foraminifera, Bivalvia, Polychaeta, Harpacticoid copepoda, Gastrotricha, and Kinoryncha, of which nematodes (54%) followed by foraminferans (37%) were the dominant group. A significant difference in the distribution of meio benthos between the inner and outer fjords was observed. Multivariate analysis of macro and meio fauna showed an overall similarity of ~ 80% among stations. The inner and outer fjords were similar in terms of granulomertic composition and were also silt dominated in the entire Kongsfjorden system. Total carbon (TC) and total organic carbon (TOC) were higher in the outer fjord, but the total inorganic carbon (TIC) was slightly higher in the inner fjord. The diversity and abundance of benthic organisms was strongly influenced by sediment characteristics, glacial inputs and Atlantic water mass movements making the ecosystem unpredictable.

Kongsfjord; Macrofauna; Meiofauna; Nematoda; Foraminifera