TY - JOUR

T1 - High-Arctic intertidal foraminifera, 78°N Spitsbergen

AU - Golikova, E.

AU - Korsun, S.

AU - Voltski, I.

AU - Varfolomeeva, M.

AU - Granovitch, A.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2022/2

Y1 - 2022/2

N2 - Intertidal foraminifera tend to decline in abundance and species richness toward the poles. Neither their mere existence at high latitudes has been documented nor has their species composition been characterized. To fill this gap, we conducted reconnaissance in the sheltered fjordhead of the Dicksonfjord (78°N). A transect of seven mudflat stations sampled in triplicate revealed a living assemblage consisting of Elphidium albiumbilicatum, Elphidium clavatum, and Elphidium williamsoni. There were no arenaceous species. This northernmost to date assemblage of intertidal foraminifera has little in common with that of the adjacent fjord basin and, therefore, seems to originate from a different source. It rather corresponds to the rotaliid subset of the intertidal fauna of the northern Fennoscandia at 60–70°N. Thus, foraminiferal colonizers of intertidal Spitsbergen have probably arrived from the mainland by means of bird transport, a hypothetical dispersal vector. In addition, we searched for salt-marsh foraminifera in grassed patches above the tidal flat. Even though halophytes are known from the fjords, we found only a not-salt-tolerant grass in the Dicksonfjord with no foraminifera in the roots. So whether there are salt-marsh foraminifera in Spitsbergen remains an open question.

AB - Intertidal foraminifera tend to decline in abundance and species richness toward the poles. Neither their mere existence at high latitudes has been documented nor has their species composition been characterized. To fill this gap, we conducted reconnaissance in the sheltered fjordhead of the Dicksonfjord (78°N). A transect of seven mudflat stations sampled in triplicate revealed a living assemblage consisting of Elphidium albiumbilicatum, Elphidium clavatum, and Elphidium williamsoni. There were no arenaceous species. This northernmost to date assemblage of intertidal foraminifera has little in common with that of the adjacent fjord basin and, therefore, seems to originate from a different source. It rather corresponds to the rotaliid subset of the intertidal fauna of the northern Fennoscandia at 60–70°N. Thus, foraminiferal colonizers of intertidal Spitsbergen have probably arrived from the mainland by means of bird transport, a hypothetical dispersal vector. In addition, we searched for salt-marsh foraminifera in grassed patches above the tidal flat. Even though halophytes are known from the fjords, we found only a not-salt-tolerant grass in the Dicksonfjord with no foraminifera in the roots. So whether there are salt-marsh foraminifera in Spitsbergen remains an open question.

KW - Dicksonfjord

KW - Intertidal

KW - Living foraminifera

KW - Salt marsh

KW - Svalbard

KW - Tidal flat

KW - FJORD

KW - LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM

KW - ZONE

KW - DYNAMIC SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS

KW - SALT-MARSH FORAMINIFERA

KW - SVALBARD

KW - SEA

KW - RIVER ESTUARY ADVENTFJORDEN

KW - FAUNA

KW - RECENT BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123082260&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ea4aa0e5-bd27-3a85-aa2c-989cf654e25f/

U2 - 10.1007/s00300-021-02967-5

DO - 10.1007/s00300-021-02967-5

M3 - Article

VL - 45

SP - 243

EP - 258

JO - Polar Biology

JF - Polar Biology

SN - 0722-4060

IS - 2

ER -