Marine Mollusca from Expedition Fiord, Western Axel Heiberg Island, Northwest Territories, Canada

• Main Authors: Alec E. Aitken, Robert Gilbert
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Key words; mollusca; fiords; Canadian Arctic; Axel Heiberg Island; Greenland; ecology; zoogeography; Arctic; Canada; Expedition Fiord; Expedition River; Heiberg; Jørgen Brønlund Fjord; Northwest Territories
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.574.9536; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic49-1-29.pdf

ABSTRACT. Marine molluscs, including bivalves, gastropods and scaphopods, were recovered by dredging at depths of 3–82 m in Expedition Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island, Canada. Cluster analysis, based on presence/absence data at 27 stations, defined two mollusc associations within the fiord. A Portlandia-Thyasira association, characterized by the abundance of Portlandia arctica and Thyasira gouldi, inhabits silty clay substrates at depths of 32–82 m throughout the fiord. An Astarte association, characterized by the abundance of Astarte borealis and Astarte warhami, inhabits sandy mud substrates at depths of 3–32 m in the middle and outer fiord. The absence of this mollusc association at the fiord head suggests that the suspension-feeding molluscs that constitute this association, such as Astarte, Hiatella, Mya and Trichotropis, are intolerant of the lowered salinities and high suspended-sediment concentrations created by the discharge of Expedition River into the fiord-head environment. The Expedition Fiord molluscan fauna is compared to the molluscan fauna recorded in Jørgen Brønlund Fjord, Greenland. In the latter fiord, shallow-water (5–19 m) molluscan faunas are characterized by the abundance of Portlandia arctica and Hiatella arctica, while deep-water (22–48 m) faunas are characterized by the abundance of Thyasira dunbari. Molluscs recovered live in both of these fiords are distributed widely in high-latitude fiord and continental shelf environments.