Cladocera and Copepoda of Shokalsky Island: new data from northwest Siberia

ABSTRACT

Information on the freshwater fauna of the remote Arctic territories is very patchy, and most of the isolated islands of the Arctic Ocean remain absolutely unexplored. The pioneer data on the species composition of microcrustaceans of Shokalsky Island (northwest Siberia, Russia) is reported here. The initial three-year research revealed a total of 31 new for the area species of Cladocera and Copepoda, including new records for the whole of northwestern Siberia. Comparing the interannual differences in faunal composition, we suggested the hypothesis of the existence of a cryptic pool of species’ resting stages, which can invade the community in the event of favourable environmental conditions in the Arctic freshwaters. We also compiled all the available data from different parts of northern Siberia and compared them with the fauna of Shokalsky Island to analyse the connection between the diversity and distributional patterns of copepods and cladoceran species and the climate conditions of different territories.

KEYWORDS:

• Microcrustacean
• Yamal region
• Arctic
• climate effect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study of ecology and taxonomy of Cladocera and Cyclopoida (Copepoda) was supported by the programme ‘Scientific bases for the creation of a national depository bank of living systems’ of the Russian Science Foundation [grant number 14-50-00029]. The study of ecology and taxonomy of Harpacticoida and drafting of crustaceans database of Yamalia and northern Siberia were supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research [grant number 17-04-00337-a].