THE KARA SEA 243 



also the salty deep waters pulled by the undertow far up the estuarian zones 

 draw with them more euryhaline bottom dwellers such as, for example, the 

 polychaetes Ampharete vegae, Marenzelleria wireni, Laonice annenkovae, 

 the molluscs Portlandia arctica, P. aestuariorum, and Cyrtodaria kurriana 

 usually found only in fresh water, and with them the genuine marine forms : 

 Perigonimus yoldiae-arcticae, Nephthys malmgreni, Terebellides stromi, Mesi- 

 dothea sibirica, M. sabini robusta, Diastylis sulcata stuxbergi, Paroediceros 

 intermedins, Gammarus setosus, Lora novajya-zemlyensis, Rhizomolgula globu- 

 laris and others. 



The last-mentioned marine bottom dwellers penetrate to the south of Cape 

 Drovyanoy in Obskaya Inlet, and in the Gulf of Yenisey as far as the Shiro- 

 kaya Bay. 



There is a considerable quantitative preponderance of echinoderms in the 

 Kara Sea benthos, and, in fact, this Sea may quite rightly be called the sea of 

 echinoderms. In the deep western part of the sea no less than four-fifths of the 

 benthos biomass consists of echinoderms. However, the echinoderms here are 

 not as varied as in the Barents Sea. Gorbunov records only 47 species of 

 echinoderms for the Kara Sea itself. Apparently, the molluscs too are not so 

 strongly represented here as in the Barents Sea. Besides the echinoderms 

 species of the genera Portlandia, Mesidothea and Synidothea stand out 

 among the rest of the bottom fauna. 



The zoobenthos of the Kara Sea as an indicator of its hydrological conditions. 

 Several mass benthos forms of the Barents Sea penetrate into the Kara Sea 

 either by skirting Novaya Zemlya or by entering through the southern pas- 

 sages, such as the Arctic-boreal, low Arctic, sub Arctic and to some extent 

 boreal ones. Here they become indicators of the warmer and more saline 

 Barents Sea waters (Fig. 1 04). This influence of the more warmth-loving Barents 

 Sea fauna is plainly felt in the region between the islands of Wiese and Uyedi- 

 neniye. Here in the region of Wiese Island, and to the east of it, approximately 

 up to 87° E longitude there are found Arctic-boreal species foreign to the 

 Kara Sea. All these forms are brought here by the terminal streams of the 

 Novaya Zemlya branch of the North Cape current which enters the northern 

 part of the Kara Sea from the west. 



The heating of this part of the Kara Sea by the warm waters of the inter- 

 mediate layer, which enters it from the north, furthers the penetration of the 

 Barents Sea fauna into the central part of its northern half. The molluscs 

 Pecten islandicus, the crustaceans Epimeria loricata, Pleustes panoplus, Aristias 

 tumidus, Centromedon pumilus, Eurysteus melanops, Calathura brachiata, 

 Pandalus borealis, Spirontocaris turgida, S. spina, the echinoderms Ophiopholis 

 aculeata, Henricia sanguinolenta, Stephanasterias albula, Strongylocentrotus 

 droebachiensis, Psolus phantapus, and the brachiopod Rhynchonella psittacea 

 are most characteristic of this fauna. Some members of this fauna go down the 

 Novaya Zemlya trough as far as Blagopoluchiya Bay and Pakhtusov Island. 



Gorbunov's survey has shown that Matochkin Shar is of little importance 

 for the immigration of the Barents Sea fauna to the east. The Kara Gates 

 play a much greater role in this movement, and the influence of the flow of the 



