THE MACROZOOBENTHIC SPECIES OF
THE INFRALITTORAL
AND CIRCALITTORAL ZONE FROM THE
ROMANIAN BLACK SEA COAST – A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT
Mihaela Cosmina TĂNASE [1], Adrian FILIMON1,
Camelia DUMITRACHE1, Valeria ABAZA1
Abstract. The paper aims to
present the results of the analysis of 20 macrozoobenthic samples collected in
2022 from the Romanian Black Sea shore. The depth of the sampling sites ranged
between 12.3 m and 42 m, corresponding to the infralittoral and circalittoral zones.
Qualitatively, 102 taxa of macrozoobenthos including 36 polychaetes, 25 crustaceans,
20 molluscs, 10 nemertians and 11 taxa representing
other groups, were recorded. Polychaetes were predominantly abundant, representing 55.92%
of density. Species such as Melinna palmata
Grube, 1870, Heteromastus filiformis
(Claparède, 1864) and Prionospio
cirrifera Wirén, 1883
recorded the highest densities. Among crustaceans, the most abundant species were Ampelisca diadema (Costa, 1853), Phtisica marina Slabber, 1749 and Medicorophium
runcicorne (Della Valle, 1893). The molluscs Abra prismatica (Montagu, 1808), Spisula
subtruncata (da Costa, 1778) and Polititapes
aureus (Gmelin, 1791) were considerably abundant as well. The average density of the benthic populations was
1571 indv/m2 . By far the highest
densities were recorded at two sites located close to the Danube’s Sf. Gheorghe
mouth, at depths of 12.3 m and 19.9 m, represented 18.40%, respectively 16.42%
of the total average density. The other sites recorded densities not greater
than 6%. The average biomass was 236.54 g/m2 and was dominated by
molluscs (90.74%). Among stations, Sf. Gheorghe (40.1 m) recorded the highest
biomass, representing 42.60% of the total average biomass.
Keywords: benthic fauna, distribution, Black Sea, polychaetes,
Romania
DOI
https://doi.org/10.56082/annalsarscibio.2022.2.62
