A Short Research Guide on Arctic Historical Bryozoan Collections and a Few Associated Biocoenosis at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Russian bryozoans and other invertebrate biocenosis material collected in the Arctic Ocean over a period of more than 250 years, and the corresponding literature citing them, are deposited in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia. This paper provides a general description and historical quantitative information about the Historical Bryozoan Collection kept in this Russian institute. Access to species-level data is available via the data portal (www.zin.ru). The quantitative distribution of benthos, specifically bryozoans, in the Russian Arctic seas remained nearly unexplored until recent times. The first systematic quantitative studies were conducted by the Zoological Institute in the Laptev Sea, in its southeastern part, on the New Siberian Shoal in 1973; the Chaun Bay of the East Siberian Sea in 1986; and near Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt of the Chukchi Sea in 1976.