Zoobenthos Biodiversity over the
Soft Bottom in the Crimean Coastal Zone
of the Black Sea

N. K. Revkov, N. A. Boltacheva, T. V. Nikolaenko, and E. A. Kolesnikova

Kovalevskii Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Sevastopol, Ukraine

Received October 18, 2000; in final form, January 11, 2001

Abstract—Data on the structure of the zoobenthos inhabiting the soft bottom of the shelf zone off the Crimean
coast of the Black Sea are given. The samples were collected in the spring of 1999. At eleven stations, at depths
from 22 to 142 m, 149 macrobenthic species were found. The parameters of the species diversity and the quan-
titative (abundance and biomass) development of the principal benthic groups (mollusks, annelids, crustaceans,
miscellaneous, or other) dwelling in different areas were analyzed. In general, for the Crimean coast, annelids
(75%) and mollusks (89%) are the leading benthic groups in terms of abundance and biomass, respectively. To
estimate the benthos diversity, Shannon’s, Simpson’s, and Pielou’s indices were used. For the first time, the
presence of the bivalve mollusk Scapharca inaequivalvis was noted off the coast of the South Crimea (the
Karadag and Alushta areas). The results obtained allow us to estimate the state of the bottom ecosystems dwell-
ing in the Crimean coastal zone of the Black Sea as fairly satisfactory.

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