Topical Groups of Mollusks in the Lakes
of Bolshoy Solovetskiy Island
(Solovetskiy Archipelago, White Sea, Northwestern Russian)

Yu. V. Bespalaya, I. N. Bolotov, and N. A. Zubry

Institute of Ecological Problems of the North, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences,
nab. Severnoy Dviny 23, Archangelsk, 163000 Russia

e-mail: inepras@yandex.ru

Received April 29, 2008

Abstract—Topical groups of mollusks were studied in 13 lakes of Bol’shoy Solovetsky Island. A total of
20species and 14 genera of mollusks were found. Five classes of mollusk topical groups may be defined with
a higher probability. These groups include 12 to 19 species. All these species inhabit the littoral zone at depths
of up to 3.2 m. No mollusks were found within the lakes' deepwater zone (maximal depths of 10–30 m and silty
grounds). A specific set of one to three dominant species is a characteristic of each class of topical groups. This
may be treated as an effect of compensating for island communities: low species diversity is compensated for
by increasing the density of colonies of some species. Ten mollusk species are significantly confined to a spe-
cific type of habitat.

Key words: Solovetskie Islands, lakes, aquatic mollusks, species diversity, topical distribution.

DOI:10.1134/S1995082909020114

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