Saint-Petersburg State University
Faculty of Biology

Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Rus | Eng

Marine benthic ecology

Head of the group: Vadim Khaitov (polydora@rambler.ru), Evgeniy Yakovis (yakovis@rbcmail.ru)

Members of the group to 2013:
Anna Artemieva (a.artemieva@gmail.com),
Aleksey Poloskin,
Maria Skazina,
Anna Kirkilevitch,
Valeria Usmanova

Key publications up to 2013:

  1. Khaitov V. M., Nikolaeva A. M., 1999. Structure of mussel bed’s communities on the intertidal of Kandalaksha bay of the White Sea. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Gosugarstvennogo Universiteta 3(1): 9–28.
  2. Khaitov V. M., Fokin M. V., Nicolaeva A. M., 1999. Structure of communities associated with dense assemblages of the tube-dwelling polychaete Polydora quadrilobata Jacobi (Spionidae) in the White Sea. Hydrobiologia 393: 221–226.
  3. Khaitov V. M., Artemieva A. V., Fokin M. V., Yakovis E. L., 2002. Structure and dynamics of communities in Mytilus edulis druses on the intertidal of Solovetsky Island. I. Structure and dynamics of mussel’s population. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Gosugarstvennogo Universiteta 3(4): 9–17.
  4. Khaitov V. M., Artemieva A. V., Fokin M. V., Yakovis E. L., 2002. Structure and dynamics of communities in Mytilus edulis druses on the intertidal of Solovetsky Island. II. Structure and dynamics of community associated with druses. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Gosugarstvennogo Universiteta 3(4): 18–19.
  5. Khaitov V. M., Poloskin A. V., Naumov A. D. (2007) Long-term changes in blue-mussel’s populations: old theories and new data. Materialy IX nauchnogo seminara «Chtenia pamiati K. M. Derjugina» (eds Maksimovitch N. V., Stogov I. A.), Saint-Petersburg: 55–84.
  6. Khaitov V. M., Artemieva A. V., Gornykh A. E., Zhizhina O. G., Yakovis E. L., 2007. The role of mussel druses in structuring of communities of soft-bottom flat. I. Components of communities associated with mussel druses on intertidal of the White Sea. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Gosugarstvennogo Universiteta 3(4): 3–12.
  7. Khaitov V. M., Artemieva A. V., Gornykh A. E., Zhizhina O.G., Yakovis E. L., 2007. The role of mussel druses in structuring of communities of soft-bottom flat. II. Formation of the community in experiments. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Gosugarstvennogo Universiteta 3(4): 13–26.
  8. Khaitov V. M., Kuzmin A. A., Terovskaya E. V., 2007. Morphological differences between females of different Jaera species (Crustacea: Asellota: Isopoda) in the White Sea: a possible solution to an old problem. Marine Biology 150: 1205–1214.
  9. Skazina M., Sofronova E., Khaitov V., 2013. Paving the way for the new generations: Astarte borealis population dynamics in the White Sea. Hydrobiologia 706(1): 35–49.
  10. Tamberg Y., Shunatova N., Yakovis E. Solitary entoprocts living on bryozoans — commensals, mutualists or parasites? // J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., in press.
  11. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Fokin M.V., Varfolomeeva M.A., Shunatova N.N. Synchronous annual recruitment variation in barnacles and ascidians in the White Sea shallow subtidal 1999—2010 // Hydrobiologia, in press
  12. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Fokin M.V., Varfolomeeva M.A. Intraspecific variation in stable isotope signatures indicates no small-scale feeding interference between a horse mussel and an ascidian // Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser., ò. 467, 2012, ñ. 113-120.
  13. Varfolomeeva M.A., Artemieva A.V., Shunatova N.N., Yakovis E.L. Growth and survival of barnacles in presence of co-dominating solitary ascidians: growth ring analysis. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., 363(1), 2008, pp. 42-47
  14. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Shunatova N.N., Varfolomeeva M.A. Multiple foundation species shape benthic habitat islands. Oecologia, v. 155(4), 2008, pp. 785-795
  15. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Fokin M.V., Varfolomeeva M.A., Shunatova N.N. Effect of habitat architecture on mobile benthic macrofauna associated with patches of barnacles and ascidians. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser., v. 348, 2007, pp. 117-124
  16. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Fokin M.V., Grishankov A.V., Shunatova N.N. Patches of barnacles and ascidians in soft bottoms: associated motile fauna in relation to the surrounding assemblage. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., v. 327(2), 2005, pp. 210-224
  17. Yakovis E.L., Artemieva A.V., Fokin M.V. Spatial pattern indicates an influence of barnacle and ascidian aggregations on the surrounding benthic assemblage. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol., v. 309(2), 2004, pp. 155-172
  18. Yakovis E.L. Substrate preferences of a non-colonial kamptozoan, and its interactions with bryozoan hosts. Marine Biology, v. 141(6), 2002, pp. 1109-1115
  19. Temereva E.N., Malakhov V.V., Yakovis E.L., Fokin M.V. Phoronis ovalis (Phoronida, Lophophorata) in the White Sea: the first discovery of phoronids in the Arctic Basin. Dokl. Biol. Sci., v. 374, 2000, p. 523-525.
  20. Khaitov V., 2013. Life in an unstable house: community dynamics in changing mussel beds. Hydrobiologia 706(1): 139–158.

«Marine Benthic Ecology» group studies structure and long term monitoring of dynamics of benthic communities in the White Sea. Our main interest is associated with the analysis of intra- and inter-specific interactions in dense assemblages of bottom organisms (mussel beds, filamentous algae interlacement, assemblages of tube-dwelling polychaetes).

Also our group develops branch project dedicated to sibling species in the White Sea bottom communities. We carry on search of molecular and morphological markers, which will provide significant determination of close species.

Projects in progress concern bivalves from genera Mytilus, Macoma, Astarte; polychaetes of genera Dipolydora, Micronephthys, Terebellides, Scoloplos; isopods of genera Jaera.

Our investigations are based on the material of long-term monitoring program (time series of observations more 20 years) and various field experiments.

The main part of our works is associated with the area of Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve (the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea). The office studies are conducted on the base of Invertebrate zoology department, SPbSU and Laboratory of Marine Benthic Ecology (Hydrobiology), EBC «Krestovsky Ostrov».

Study areas
Twice a year we organize expeditions to the White Sea (in summer and winter). During our field work we conduct the material collection in the monitoring sites and in field experiments.

Cooperation:
Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve;
Ecological and Biological centre «Krestovsky ostrov»
White Sea Biological Station «Kartesh», Zoological Institute of RAS;
White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University.

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