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A LIST OF THE MACROFAUNA IN THE INTERTIDAL ZONE OF THE KURILE ISLANDS, WITH REMARKS ON ZOOGEO-GRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF THE REGION

1975; Seto Marine Biological Laboratory; Volume: 22; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5134/175890

2189-2695

Oleg G. Kussakin,

Food Industry and Aquatic Biology

With Text-figures 1-3 0. G. KussAKIN of the upper layers in different areas of the archipelago fluctuates so greatly that within a narrow latitudinal range between the warmest Kunashir Island and the coldest middle Kuriles (only 4°) these fluctuations often reach l2-l3°C.The above temperature regime is responsible for a considerable difference in the population of these regions. Short Review of Previous WorksThough faunistic and floristic research of sea coasts of the Kurile Islands was started as early as at the end of the 18th century, it was not untill933 and 1941 when the Japanese botanists Miyabe and Nagai made the first attempt to characterize this region floristically.They divided the Kurile coasts into three floristic districts: high-boreal, low-boreal and north-temperate.The extensive faunistic and floristic material collected by Russian hydrobiologists from 194 7 to 1968 appeared quite sufficient for a more thorough biogeographical analysis of the area in question.According to Ushakov (1953, 1955), Gurjanova (1955), Kobjakova (1958, 1959) and Scarlato (1956, 1960), the southern Okhotsk continental shelf with the northern Hokkaido coasts, the Aniva Bay and southern Kuriles as far as the Ekaterina Strait is included in the Japan Sea Province of the Far Eastern subregion of the Pacific boreal region.E. Gurjanova distinguishes the Kurile coasts north off the Ekaterina Strait and the bathyal zone east off the Small Kurile Archipelago (Suisio Sioto) as the independent Kurile Province.But all the above authors regarded the fauna and flora of the continental shelf as a whole, and this is the reason why the scheme of biogeographical demarcation proposed by them can only roughly be applied to the intertidal zone of the region in question.A biogeographical analysis especially of the fauna and partially of the flora of the intertidal zone of the Kuriles was made only by Kussakin (1956), chiefly on the data of isopods and decapods, Khlebovitch (1958Khlebovitch ( , 1961) ) on the data of polychaets, Golikov and Kussakin (1962) on the data of castropods, and finally by Kussakin (1970) on the data ofisopods and gastropods.According to the common conclusion of these authors, the southern Kurile intertidal zone as far as the Iturup north-west coast, inclusively, with the Hokkaido intertidal zone, northern parts of Honshu, Soviet continental coast (Primorsk) and some parts of South Sakhalin should be included in a south-boreal biogeographical province.V. Khlebovitch names it the Japan Sea Province, and A. Golikov and Kussakin the North-Japan Province.Kussakin (1956) roughly places a southern boundary of this province along a line connecting Wonsan, Noto Peninsula, and Inubo Cape.The southeast coast of Iturup Island with all the islands situated further north are included by the above authors in an independent biogeographical province.Emphasizing the presence of many endemic species and even the endemic genus among Laminariales, i.e.Pleuropterum near the northern and middle Kuriles, Kussakin (1956) considered it possible to treat the Kurile Province as an independent province.