Effect of the East Siberian Barrier on the Echinoderm Dispersal
in the Arctic Ocean

A. N. Mironov and A. B. Dilman

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: miron@ocean.ru

Received October 22, 2008

Abstract—The distributional patterns were analyzed for 43 species and 33 genera of echinoderms in the Laptev
and East Siberian seas and for 59 species and 35 genera of the asteroid species in the Arctic Ocean. The probable
colonization route through the Arctic was suggested for each species based on (1) the distributional patterns of
the Arctic species, (2) the distributional patterns of the closely related species, and (3) the location of the center
of the diversity of the species belonging to a certain genus. The species of the Pacific origin prevailed in the
asteroid fauna of the Arctic seas. The asteroid species diversity and the ratio of the species of Pacific origin
decreased from the Barents towards the Laptev Sea and increased, respectively, in the East Siberian and the
Chukchee seas. The species range limits were found for 19 species in the East Siberian Sea compared to only
3 species in the Laptev Sea. The East Siberian Sea was a limiting area for the dispersal of four species groups:
(1) invaders from the North Pacific dispersing along the Asian coast of the Arctic (shallow-water stenobathic
species), (2) invaders from the North Pacific dispersing along the American coast of the Arctic and further on
back into the Arctic along the Eurasian coast (secondarily Atlantic species); (3) originally invaders from the
Northern Atlantic; (4) representatives of the Arctic autochthonous fauna. A great width of the biotic boundaries
(i.e., the zones of the species range boundaries crowding) was typical for the Arctic Basin, which was a sign of
their young geological age.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437010030057

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