Laboratory of Ecology of Coastal Bottom Communities

The main direction of the laboratory's work is the identification of regularities in the spatial organization and temporal dynamics of benthic communities, the analysis of changes in the species composition, trophic and functional structure of communities in various regions of the World Ocean. The object of research is the main size-ecological blocks of bottom ecosystems: micro-, meio- and macrozoobenthos, macrophyte algae and microphytobenthos.

The laboratory of the biological foundations of mariculture was created under the leadership of Vera Borisovna Vozzhinskaya in 1983.

From 1997 to 2012 the laboratory was headed by Nikita Valentovich Kucheruk. On his initiative, the Laboratory received its modern name, and the main task of the research was to study the dynamics of benthic communities under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors.

Since that time, the main tasks of the Laboratory have been related to the study of the structure of coastal zone communities on a wide geographical gradient - from the tropics to the Arctic. All components of coastal benthic communities are studied from a unified methodological and methodological standpoint: microphyto-, microzoo-, meio- and macro- (zoo- and phyto-) benthos. The development of benthic communities of the coastal zone is considered in the context of the unity of hydrological, lithological and biological processes in ecosystems. A wide range of methods is used, including both traditional methods that ensure comparability of results over long time series, and the most modern methods - molecular genetic, light and electron microscopy, cytochemical methods, isotope analysis of food webs, remote sensing methods (underwater photography and video recording, side-scan sonar, satellite photos).

Currently, the Laboratory employs 20 specialists, including two doctors and 10 candidates of sciences. The material for the work is expedition fees and permanent observations at stationary ranges as part of the White Sea and Black Sea coastal marine expeditions, Arctic cruises and expeditions to coastal regions from high latitudes to the tropics.

The directions and main results of the work of the Laboratory can be conditionally grouped into several thematic blocks:

• structure and dynamics of benthic communities in the Arctic seas;
• long-term changes in the Black Sea communities;
• invasive species and their role in ecosystems;
• structure and dynamics of fouling communities on solid substrates;
• biology of microphytobenthos;
• biology of meiobenthos;
• trophic structure of benthic communities;
• molecular genetic methods in taxonomy and ecology.

Publications:

V. O. Mokievsky's lab | P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (researchgate.net)