Marine bivalve molluscs of Svalbard

Abstract

The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is situated between latitudes 74 and 81”N and longitudes 10 and 3YE, on the boundary of three seas: the Greenland, the Barents and the Arctic Sea. A significant part in the surface circulation is played by the Norwegian Current, a branch of the warm North Atlantic Current, passing into the West Spitsbergen Current which governs the hydrological regime off the archipelago’s west coast. The east coast is affected by masses of cold water, flowing south as the East Spitsbergen Current (Lee 1952) and the local Sørkapp Current (Tantsura 1959; Swerpel 1985) from the central part of the Arctic Basin. A persistent frontal zone is present within the area of interaction between the two water masses (Alekseyev 1959). Due to its bottom topography, complex coastline, and hydrological properties, the area off the southwest coast of Svalbard is regarded as the region with the most intricate environmental conditions in the Barents Sea.