512 



BIOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF THE U.S.S.R. 

 Table 214 



Changes in the Sea of Azov benthos over a period of many years. I. Stark, con- 

 tinuing the researches of Vorobieff and Mordukhai-Boltovskoy, has prepared 

 a series of comprehensive studies (1951, 1955, 1958) of the benthos of the Sea 

 of Azov. She has brought greater precision into the picture of benthos distri- 

 bution in the northeastern part of the Sea and the Gulf of Taganrog up to 

 1952. In her survey of the general course of quantitative changes of benthos, 

 in the areas she investigated where Sea of Azov fish have their main feeding 

 grounds, Stark notes that the loss of benthos biomass in areas of large con- 

 centrations of fish as a result of suffocation, consumption by fish and natural 

 mortality, exceeds at some seasons of the year (summer and autumn) the. 

 gain by breeding and growth. 



In other seasons (late autumn and spring) the picture is reversed, gain ex- 

 ceeding loss. The loss of benthos in winter time is due to natural mortality 

 and sometimes to suffocation of the fauna. After a huge extinction of fish 

 by suffocation in 1937 the quantity of benthos continued to decrease for 



