Given the recent climate changes and their impact on the Antarctic Peninsula ecosystems, the emergence of invasive species, and increased tourism activity in this region, monitoring changes in the habitats of species native to the Antarctic Peninsula region is necessary. One such species is the Antarctic midge Belgica antarctica (Chironomidae). This insect is endemic to the Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent islands. Thorough studies of changes in the range of this species have not been performed in recent decades. In this study, we present the area of Belgica antarctica according to the collections of biological samples during 2007–2021 (XII, XIV, XVI, XXIV, and XXV Ukrainian Antarctic Expeditions). This Antarctic midge was recorded at 26 localities on the Antarctic Peninsula and 212 localities on 55 surrounding islands between 66°08′38.4′′ S, 65°43′37.1′′ W (Cape Evensen, Stresher Peninsula, opposite the Marie Island, west coast of Graham Land) and 62°11′44.7′′ S, 58°57′40.6′′ W (King George Island, South Shetland Islands) from south-west to north-east.
Small water bodies like the rock pools are used as a model system for evolutionary and environmental studies with a growing interest. The zooplankton in the rock pools is a most interesting and promising research object. Although the first papers on Antarctic rock pools were published early in the XX century, these water bodies have been not investigated in detail and comprehensively. The paper aims to review and systematize the knowledge on the diversity of the freshwater zooplankton of the Maritime Antarctica, South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands. These organisms include meso- and macro- zooplankton (0.2—20 mm) living in the water and unable to propel themselves against a current, 69 taxa in total. The most diverse of them are 52 taxa of rotifers with 4 taxa identified to the subspecies, 44 — to species, and 4 — to genus level. Crustaceans include 16 taxa (14 identified to the species, 1 — to genus, and 1 — to order); 9 taxa belong to branchiopods, 3 — to ostracods, and 4 — to copepods. One insect species, Parochlus steinenii, is present in the plankton at the larval stage. Summarizing these results, the rock pools of the fairly well studied South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands (41 and 46 taxa, respectively) exhibit diversity of living organisms similar to the comparable waterbodies from other parts of the world, while the rest of the region has a much lower diversity (11 taxa). However, this discrepancy is presumably a research artifact because so far, only a few special studies have been done in the Maritime Antarctica. For example, at the Argentine Islands three identified taxa only (2 crustaceans and 1 rotifer) are known with a number of rotifers awaiting identification.
10816 ind* m -3 , the average biomass was 607 mg* m -3 . The genera Acartia, Oithona, Centropages, Penilia avirostris and various species of the family Podonidae dominated at all the stations. In transitional waters, the contribution of freshwater phytoplankton species to biomass did not exceed 2%, the basis of biomass was formed by marine species. Despite this, in ShW_UA_1 there was a significant negative correlation between biomass and salinity (r = -0.87). In the shelf waters of the marine zone, the contribution of freshwater species to the total biomass did not exceed 0.1%, the correlation between salinity and biomass was absent (r = 0.26). At most offshore stations, brackish and freshwater zooplankton taxa were absent. There was no significant correlation between salinity and zooplankton biomass. As we approach the estuaries, the biomass of zooplankton decreases with increasing abundance. There is a high negative correlation between the ratio of zooplankton abundance to its biomass and the distance to the nearest estuary (r = -0.90), for phytoplankton this correlation is r = -0.534. For most offshore stations and horizons, water quality by phytoplankton indicators can be assessed as GES, by zooplankton indicators, as non-GES.
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