Ecological factors regulating growth of seaweeds in Arctic communities

Abstract

Features of seaweeds in the Arctic communities in connection with periodic and unperiodic influences of ecological factors have been analyzed. It has been shown that the existence of benthic algae biocenosis of the northern seas is mainly controlled by the primary periodic environmental factors acting as triggers that determine the direction of vegetative and generative processes, as well as contribute to the emergence of adaptive devices to extreme environmental conditions. Therefore, periodic exposure to environmental factors cause only structural changes in plant communities due to the elastic stability of fucus algae populations acquired as a result of the long process of adaptation to the northern seas conditions. Unperiodic primary factors also violate the ratio of the number by elimination and inhibit growth of certain algae age stages. However thanks to the stability of resistant the algae community can eventually restore its structural and functional organization