SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOLUME 128, NUMBER 9 (End of Volume) DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY OF THE MARINE INVERTEBRATES OF POINT BARROW, ALASKA (With 8 Plates) By G. E. MacGINITIE Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory California Institute of Technology (Publication 4221) CITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOVEMBER 30, 1955 THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS, INC. BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A. CONTENTS Page Introduction i Arctic explorations I Location, general surroundings, and facilities 3 Personnel 4 Equipment 5 Physical and chemical features 5 Climate and vegetation 5 Geology 7 Ice 10 Currents 14 Temperature (ocean) 17 Salinity 20 Light 21 Oxygen 24 Tides, winds, and storms 24 General discussion 25 Distribution 25 Food 29 Abundance of animals 31 Storage of oil 35 Reproduction phenomena 36 Methods of collecting and preserving specimens 53 Dredging, summer, 1948 and 1949 53 Dredging, winter, 1949-50 53 Bottom sampling, winter, 1949-50 56 Dredging, summer, 1950 57 Plankton sampling, summer 58 Plankton sampling, winter 58 Caring for animals in the laboratory 59 Dredging stations and collecting data 60 Zonation 60 Dredging stations and representative animals 62 Trapping through the ice 85 Records of surf conditions and shore collecting 92 Analysis of plankton sampling 104 Parasites and commensals 113 Discussion of animals by phyla 115 Protozoa 115 Porifera ii5 Coelenterata 116 Class Scyphozoa 120 Class Anthozoa 121 Ctenophora 123 iii iv SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 28 Page Platyhelminthes 123 Class Turbellaria 123 Class Cestoda 124 Nematoda 124 Nemertea 125 Sipunculoidea 126 Priapuloidea 126 Echiuroidea 127 Chaetognatha 128 Brachiopoda 129 Bryozoa 129 Entoprocta I33 Annelida I34 Class Chaetopoda I34 Class Hirudinea I44 Echinodermata I44 Class Asteroidea I45 Class Ophiuroidea 145 Class Echinoidea 146 Class Holothuroidea 146 Arthropoda I47 Class Crustacea I47 Class Arachnoidea 170 Mollusca 171 Class Pelecypoda ^72 Class Gastropoda I75 Class Amphineura I79 Class Cephalopoda I79 Enteropneusta 180 Tunicata 180 Class Ascidiacea 180 Vertebrata 183 Class Pisces 183 Class Mammalia 185 Discussion 187 Acknowledgments I93 Selected bibliography I94 DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY OF THE MARINE INVERTEBRATES OF POINT BARROW, ALASKA By G. E. MacGINITIE Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory California Institute of Technology (With 8 Plates) INTRODUCTION ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS i Our knowledge of the fauna of Arctic waters is fairly complete for some areas, scanty for others, and totally lacking for still others. The European Arctic and the eastern Canadian Arctic have been more thoroughly investigated than have the western Canadian Arctic and the Alaskan Arctic. The following partial recapitulation of expedi- tions and investigations gives some idea of the European research on the biology of the Arctic Ocean. As early as 1587 the British, under John Davis, explored around west Greenland as far north as latitude 72° 12', and in the next two centuries the Dutch, under Willem Barents and Henry Hudson, and the British, under C. J. Phipps, explored around Spitsbergen to lati- tude 8o°48' N. From 1879 to 1882 the British continued explorations around Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, and Franz Joseph Land. Such expeditions as the above and that of the Maud (see below) were more exploratory and oceanographical than biological in nature. The Second German Northpolar Expedition, under Capt. Karl Koldewey (1869-70), explored around east Greenland. Dredging excursions to Iceland were carried out under Verkruzen about 1872. The Danish Ingolf Expedition of 1879 also explored around east Greenland. Den Norske Nordhavsexpeditionen of 1876-78 worked in the European Arctic. The west coast of Greenland was explored in 1892. The ^ The present study was made possible through contracts of the California Institute of Technology (summer, 1948) and The Johns Hopkins University (June 1949-August 1950) with the Office of Naval Research (Contract and Task Order No. N6-0NR 243-16; Project No. NR 162 911). SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 128, NO. 9 I 2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I28 Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the Fram (1898-1902) went from northern Norway through the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea (be- tween Novaya Zemlya and Russia), the Laptev Sea, and to the east around west Spitsbergen. Between 1879 and 1900 there were various Swedish expeditions to east Greenland and other regions. The Plank- ton Expedition of 1903 included the waters of Iceland. The Russians sent an expedition to Spitsbergen, and the Bremer Expedition of 1889 also explored around east Spitsbergen, the Kola Fjord, and the south- west parts of the Barents Sea. The Danish expeditions of 1906-08 did work along the northeast coast of Greenland. The Norwegian North Polar Expedition in the Maud from 1918 to 1925 wintered three times on the Siberian coast on their way to Alaska, spent two years drifting from Wrangell Island to the north of the New Siberian Islands, wintered at the Bear Islands at the mouth of the Kolima, and then went to Nome. The Godthaab Expedition did work along the west coast of Greenland in 1928, and there were Danish investiga- tions in the Faroes between 1924 and 1927. Various Danish expedi- tions worked rather intensively along the east coast of Greenland from 1929 to 1933, in some instances leaving investigators over winter. Nothing comparable to the work done along the coast of Green- land, Iceland, and the Faroes has been done in the American Arctic. The fauna of northeastern Arctic Canada is better known than that of Arctic Alaska or the western Canadian Arctic. Some work has been done in the American Archipelago, and at present the Canadians are carrying on investigations. Recently Dr. M. J. Dunbar has made excellent contributions from Ungava Bay and other waters in that region. Lt. Ernest Belcher, on the voyage of the Beechey in 1825-28, did some collecting as far north as Icy Cape, but the majority of his work was south of Bering Strait. The Vega expedition did some work in the Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea, Bering Strait, and Bering Sea. Lt. P. H. Ray and his party were stationed at Point Barrow and vicinity in 1881-83 (the Interna- tional Polar Expedition to Point Barrow), but their work was largely meteorological and they lacked proper facilities for collecting. This is borne out by the fact that they collected only 180 species of animals. The Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18 did very little work north of western Canada and Alaska. Of the various voyages and expeditions that visited Arctic Alaskan waters (such as the Resolution and Discovery under James Cook, the Scniavine under Liitke, and the Vincennes under Rogers) probably the most important from the — NO. 9 MARINE INVERTEBRATES, ALASKA MacGINITIE 3 standpoint of collections of invertebrates were those of the Yukon (U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey schooner) under the leadership of Dall (1880) and the Corzvin under Captain Healy (1884 and 1885). These investigations were much less intensive than those of the Danes about Greenland; they were too spotty, and the animals col- lected were sometimes so poorly preserved as to be of little value. Such expeditions can give only a general picture of the fauna, and the research is usually more oceanographical than biological or ecologi- cal in character. Only through continued intensive work in a small area can any- where near an accurate picture of the fauna of a region be obtained. The present work was undertaken for the purpose of obtaining as much information as possible on the fauna of Point Barrow. As this is about midway between the areas that have been investigated to the east and to the west, it was a strategic locality for the study of circumpolar distribution of species, and the extension of our knowl- edge of the Arctic marine animal population and its environment far to the westward. The work was carried out through the facilities of the Arctic Re- search Laboratory, which was maintained by the Office of Naval Research under contract with the Institute for Cooperative Research, a branch of the Johns Hopkins University. LOCATION, GENERAL SURROUNDINGS, AND FACILITIES The Arctic Research Laboratory is located within the base camp maintained by the Arctic Contractors (Arcon), who were under con- tract with the U. S. Navy to explore some 37,000 square miles of oil reserve. The personnel of the camp, both Navy and civilian, were very cooperative, and much of what was accomplished could not have been done without their aid. The base is located 6 miles southwest of Point Barrow and 4.5 miles northeast of the village of Barrow at approximately latitude yi°2o' N. and longitude i56°4i' W., 4°5o' above the Arctic Circle, and 1,325 miles from the North Pole. It is on the beach at the edge of a great tundra plain, and no elevations over 10 feet are visible in any direc- tion. The ocean there has no tide. The weather is stormy, but there is no snow for perhaps three months, though there may be flurries in July and August. There are about two months of perpetual day- light in summer and about two of perpetual darkness in winter, except for twilight at noon. There was plane service three days a week be- . 4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 28 tween the base and Fairbanks, and an operation called BAREX brought in supplies about the first of August of each year. In 1948 the Arctic Research Laboratory consisted of a 2-story quonset building 40 by 100 feet (pi. i, Bldg. No. 250) and a smaller i-story quonset 20 by 60 feet (Bldg. No. 270). During 1950, while the writer was scientific director, another 40-by- 100- foot quonset Fig. I. —Map of Point Barrow. (Adapted from U.S.C.G.S. Map 944S-) ^. Arctic Contractor's base.