Going eastward – climate changes evident from gastropod distribution in the Barents Sea

• Main Authors: Yuri I. Kantor, Sergei M. Rusyaev, Tatiana I. Antokhina
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barents Sea
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.533.7487; http://www.ruthenica.com/documents/Vol18_KANTOR_etal_51-54_full.pdf

ABSTRACT. Aporrhais pespelecani (Linnaeus, 1758) (fam. Aporrhaidae) was recorded for the first time in the Barents Sea on the Murman coast. The finding of established population of the mollusc probably reflects the raise of water temperature and significantly (nearly 1000 km) extends the area eastward. New findings of the gastropods in Russian part of the Barents Sea are discussed. Molluscs are very useful indicator of long-term changes of the environmental conditions. In general they are capable to rapid expansion, especially the groups with planktonic larvae, thus occupying all suitable biotopes and environments. Shells are ex-cellently preserved and remain postmortem, indica-ting the presence of the species at the given locality