Background
More than 3,050 species of invertebrates inhabit the benthos of the Barents Sea (Sirenko, 2001). Total fauna biomass, including benthic species, generally increases near the Polar Front, in shallow regions, and near the edges of banks. The richest species diversity is found on sandy silts, and silty-sand floors. Lower biomass occurs in areas with limited upwelling, low primary production, reduced vertical flux, and areas with less suitable substrata caused by heavy sedimentation (e.g. inner parts of glacial fjords).
The organisms in the ecosystem are linked through ecological interactions to form a food web, which has several trophic levels: producers (plants) at the lowest trophic level, primary consumers feeding on the producers, secondary producers feeding on the primary consumers and so on up to the apex predators that do not have any predators feeding on them, except for young stages in some species and ...
In the Barents Sea, phytoplankton is the main primary producer sustaining the rest of the food web. Within the phytoplankton community there is a competition for light and dissolved nutrients. The phytoplankton species in the Barents Sea are either pelagic, or linked to the ice edge in a way similar to the ice algae. Phytoplankton blooms in spring and summer and attracts concentrations of intensiv...
