THE KARA SEA 

 Table 102. Significance of Kara Sea zooplankton groups 



239 



Group 



Eastern Ob- Yenisei South- Gulf of 

 part region western Yenisei 



part 



Adapted mainly to the upper levels of the sea bottom — the littoral and sub- 

 littoral — the bottom algae do not find favourable conditions for existence in 

 the Kara Sea, especially during harsher climatic periods. The penetration of 

 the bottom algae into the Kara Sea from the north through the deep central 

 parts of the Arctic basin, as with zoobenthos, is impossible. 



Some members of the Barents Sea flora are at times found off the eastern 

 shores of Novaya Zemlya, but these forms belong to the upper horizons of 

 the sublittoral and they are represented by dwarf specimens of the genus Fucus. 

 Farther east along the shores of the mainland and off the islands higher algae 

 are absent; they have been observed in small quantities in western Taimyr 

 only. 



The problem of the origin of the Kara Sea bottom flora is easily solved ; this 

 cannot be said, however, of its fauna. The overwhelmingly predominant part of 

 the flora consists of Barents Sea forms, which penetrate into the Kara Sea from 



Table 103 



* According to A. D. Zinova's (1950) data there are 59 species of brown and red algae 

 in the Kara Sea. 



