Hydrobionts of the arctic belt of the Lena river basin

The Arctic belt of the Lena River basin includes part of its lower reaches, delta and more than 30,000 lakes. The reservoirs play an important role in forming the fauna of the non-migratory, semi-anadromous and anadromous fish. The zooplankton in the river is mainly represented by the cladocerans and the immature stages of copepods, and rotifers. The number and biomass made 185–270 individuals/m3  and 0.879–1.766 mg/m3 , with a total biomass of 0.005 g/m3 . The lake zooplankton is represented by rotifers, copepods, and cladocerans. The biomass of rotifers made 2.54 mg/m3 , copepods — 391.48 mg/m3 , and of cladocerans — 823.37, with a total biomass of 1.21 g/m3 . The river zoobenthos is represented by oligochaetes, mollusks, larvae of chironomids, and midges. The number and biomass made 80–120 individuals/m2  and 0.1–0.23 g/m2 , with a total biomass of 0.15 g/m3 . The lake zoobenthos is represented by oligochaetes, mollusks, chironomids, gammarids, branchiopods and phyllopods, water louse, larvae of day-flies, caddis flies, and caddis worms. The biomass of oligochaetes made 4.1 g/m2 , of mollusks — 2.8 g/m2 , and of chironomids — 0.6 g/m2 , with a total biomass of 8.2 g/m2  and a density of 1166 individuals/m2 . The ichthyofauna is 88.5 % freshwater, semi-anadromous and anadromous fish. Marine fish are represented by 4 species. The lakes are inhabited by C. peled, Salvelinus alpinus, S. jacuticus, Pungitius pungitius. H. zschokkei parasites, reducing the nutritional value of the fish, were detected in omul, and D. dendriticum cestodes, dangerous to human health, were detected in omul and muksun. Sturgeon, omul, vendace, muksun, nelma, broad whitefish, Siberian whitefish, lenok, round whitefish, tugun, grayling, dace, burbot, ruff, perch, roach, ide, and pike are fished commercially, which is 51.4 % of the total species composition of the ichthyofauna of the Arctic belt of the Lena basin. The long-term annual average (1940–2020) commercial catch of nelma, muksun, broad whitefish and vendace is 1.61 thousand tons, and taking into account IUU fishing — about 4.8 thousand tons.

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