Scientific publications

The influence of the industrial aquaculture of blue mussels on the macrozoobenthos communities is being considered in the present paper. The investigations have been conducted in the Nikolskaya inlet of the Kandalaksha Bay in the White Sea. Dynamics and amounts of suspended organic matter being produced by the mussels and falling into the water have been estimated. It was shown that more than 70% of suspended organic matter fall quite nearby the mussel farm where they mineralize intensively and partially become the deposits. By favorable oxygen conditions the additional organic matter causes strong growth of total biomass and quantity of benthic communities.
Detritus-eating animals begin to dominate there. When the amounts of suspended organic matter increase and cause the lack of oxygen, total elimination of the community (except several opportunistic species) can be observed. After elimination of the aquaculture farms the broken communities restore their basic characteristics for 2-3 years (biomass, quantities, species diversity). Further rehabilitation to the original state occurs much slower and can take more than 10 years. In many respects it is caused by modified physical and chemical characteristics of the ground sediments (granulometric composition, amounts of organic matter, presence of free oxygen).