Pelagic Amphipods of the Slope Waters of Northeast Greenland

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Authors: Tencati, John R., Geiger, Stephen R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1968
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Beaufort Sea; Gammarus wilkitzkii; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f68-147; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f68-147

Nine species of pelagic amphipods representing eight genera were collected from the drifting ice station Arlis II over the continental shelf and slope off northeast Greenland, from 77°29′N lat, 9°38′W long to 67°03′N lat, 26°18′W long. Parathemisto abyssorum predominated in this area and in a similar area of the Beaufort Sea, but was less abundant in a high arctic area north of Greenland.Gammarus wilkitzkii, Apherusa glacialis, Pseudalibrotus nanseni, and probably Eusirus holmii are associated with the underside of ice and their distribution is apparently independent of bottom depth. Gammarus wilkitzkii, A. glacialis, P. abyssorum, and P. libellula reproduce in the waters off northeast Greenland. The boreal species Cyphocaris bouvieri is newly recorded from northeast Greenland waters. An ellobiopsid parasite, Thalassomyces marsupii, hinders the development of some primary and secondary sexual characteristics of P. abyssorum.The zooplankton fauna off northeast Greenland is a continuation of the arctic fauna with a definite, but perhaps irregular, boreal influence and suggests that water under an ice cover may not always be arctic.