surf. Here, the entire littoral zone is covered with ice for several 

 months each year, and the few multiannudl forms which penetrate here, 

 such as Fucus evanescens , Mytilus edul is , Tectonatica janthostoma , 

 Balanus crenatus , leave the dry zone and descend into the sublittoral. 



Similar changes in the littoral biota upon transition from the 

 boreal to Arctic conditions have been observwed on the Atlantic coast of 

 North America, in Greenland (f-bdsen, 1936) and in the Barents Sea 

 (Gurjanova et al . , 1925). For example, in southern Greenland in the 

 intertidal zone itself, the zone of Balanus balanoides with bands of 

 Fucus vesiculosus in the upper portion and F. distichus + 



Ascophyllum nodusum + Njytilus edul is in the lower portion dre still 

 clearly expressed. Further to the north, _A. nodosum is absent, _B. 

 balanoides becomes rdre and also gradually disappears, the laminarians 

 in the infral i ttoral edge dre replaced by mats of small algae. Along 

 the northeast coast of Greenland, of these multiannual forms, only _F. 

 distichus remains, and it also is rare (Madsen, 1935, 1940). In the 

 eastern Barents Sea, a gradual impoverishment of the littoral biota 

 occurs from west to east. Along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, there 

 is still a great deal of Fucus evanescens . In the central portion of 

 Matochkin Shar strait, multiannual macrophytes disappear completely from 

 the intertidal zone and bands of Urospora penicilliformis (upper) and 

 Pylaiella litoralis (lower) dre seen. Along the coast of the Kara Sea 

 there is no macrophyta, and only at depths of 4-6 m do we see individual 

 Fucus distichus among the stands of laminarians. 



Information on the littoral life in the Arctic itself is sparse, 

 and the data available dre quite contradictory. Some authors report 

 that the intertidal zone here is completely lifeless, while others 

 report rather significant numbers of species of macrobenthos for the 

 coastal zone. It is most probable that only cryocenoses dre present in 

 the Arctic intertidal zone. 



The impoverishment of the littoral biota in the Subantarctic and 

 Antarctic occurs similarly, though with some differences. In the 

 southern hemisphere, representatives of the family Patellidae penetrate 

 clear to the Antarctic peninsula, whereas in the northern hemisphere 

 they are almost totally absent even in the high boreal waters. 

 Barnacles disappear in the Subantarctic. The intertidal zone of most of 

 the coast of Antarctica is apparently totally lifeless. The poor 

 population is observed only in the Antarctic peninsula and adjacent 

 islands, as well as Adelie land. In the intertidal zone of the 

 Antarctic peninsula, the tides are as great as 3-4 m, and in the summer 

 along the supral i ttoral edge, orange ( Caloplaca ) and black ( Verrucaria ) 

 lichens develop, in the eulittoral zone--stands of Chlorophyta Ulothrix , 

 Urospora , Mjnostroma , Enteromorpha , Cladophora , Chaetomorpha and the 

 Rhodophytd Bangia and Wrphyra (Delepine, 1966). Phytophyllic 

 gastropods J;fei_rga_reVU , Nacella and Patinigera polaris are found. In 

 places protected from the wearing effects of the ice, a rather varied 

 population is observed with predominance of the small bivalve mollusk 

 Kidderia subquadratum , which reaches a distance of 75 cm over the zero 

 depth level under the cover of the algae Iridaea racovitzae (Stockton, 

 1973). In the region of Adelie land, where the conditions of habitation 

 dre still more severe, the supral i ttoral edge is also populated with 



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