ISSN 0704-3716 Canadian Translation of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences No . 5091 Aquatic oligochaeta B.E. Kurashvili, (ed.) Original title: Vodnye maloshchetinkovye chervi In: Proceedings of the Fourth All-Union Symposium, Tbilisi, 5-7 October, "Metsniereba" Publishing Hourse, Tbilisi, (U.S.S.R.), 136 p., 1983 Original language: Russian Available from: Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information National Research Council Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KlA 0S2 1984 143 typescript pages Secretary Secrétariat 1+ of State d'État MULTILINGUAL SERVICES DIVISION — DIVISION DES SERVICES MULTILINGUES TRANSLATION BUREAU BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS • LIBRARY IDENTIFICATION — FICHE SIGNALÉTIQUE c-rms 509 Translated from - Traduction de Into - En Russian English Author - Auteur Editor: B.E. Kurashvili Title in English or French - Titre anglais ou français Aquatic Oligochaeta Title in foreign language (Transliterate foreign characters) Titre en langue étrangère (Transcrire en caractères romains) Vodnye maloshchetinkovye chervi Reference in foreign language (Name of book or publication) in full, transliterate foreign characters. Référence en langue étrangère (Nom du livre ou publication), au complet, transcrire en caractères romains. Materialy chetvertogo Vsesoyuznogo simpoziuma, Tbilisi, 5-7 oktyabrya • Reference in English or French - Référence en anglais ou français Papers presented at the Fourth All-Union Symposium, Tbilisi, 5-7 October Publisher - Editeur Page Numbers in original DATE OF PUBLICATION Numéros des pages dans DATE DE PUBLICATION l'original Metsniereba Publishing House 1 — 133 Year Issue No. Volume Place of Publication Année Numéro Number of typed pages Lieu de publication Nombre de pages dactylographiées Tbilisi, USSR 1983 Me Ion 143 Requesting Department Translation Bureau No. DFO 1253790 Ministère-Client Notre dossier no Branch or Division SIPB Translation (Initials) Direction ou Division Traducteur (Initiales) Person requesting Demandé par A.T. Reid UNEDITED TRANSLATION For information only Your Number Votre dossier no TRADUCTION NON REVISEE Information seulement Date of Request 02.04.84 • Date de la demande AU 2 4 1984 CanacM SEC 5 - 111 (Rev.82/11) Secretary Secrétariat of State d'État MULTILINGUAL SERVICES DIVISION - DIVISION DES SERVICES MULTILINGUES TRANSLATION BUREAU BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS Client's No.—No du client Department — Ministère Division/Branch — Division/Direction City — Ville — Fisheries & Oceans SIPB Sidney, B.C. Bureau No.-1\1 0 du bureau Language — Langue Translator (Initials) — Traducteur (Initiales) 1253790 Russian L.E. In - 6 1984 AQUATIC OLIGOCHAETA (Translated from Russian) • First of Two Installments (Pages 1-78) • SEC 5-25 (Rev. 82/11) CanadU Secretary Secrétariat UNEDITED TRANSLATION 11* of State d'État For information only ION NON REVISE§ SERVICES DIVISION — DIVISION DES SERVICES muLT8leags MULTILINGUAL Information »fouler/pant TRANSLATION BUREAU BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS •Client's No.—No du client Department — Ministère Division/Branch — Division/Direction City — Ville DFO S1PB Ottawa Bureau No.—No du bureau Language — Langue Translator (Initials) — Traducteur (Initiales) 1253790 Russian L.E. ICE - 6 1984 Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR Institute of Zoology All-Union Hydrobiological Society • AQUATIC OLIGOCHAETA Proceedings of the Fourth All-Union Symposium Tbilisi, 5-7 October "Metsniereba" Publishing House Tbilisi • 1983 SEC 5-25 (Rev. 82/11) Canaa' 2 The Proceedings contain data on the origin, phylogenesis, fauna and ecology of the aquatic Oligochaeta. The papers included deal with their reproduction, development, productivity, life cycle, parthenogenesis, daily activity, population structure, and impor- tance in increasing the standing crop of fish in water bodies. The book is intended for specialists in the fields of hy- drobiology and ichthyology. Editor: B.E. Kurashvili, corresponding member of the • Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR The figures in the right-hand margin indicate page • numbers of the original (Tr.). 3 • OPENING ADDRESS by B.E. Kurashvili Director of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR, corresponding member of the Academy, professor Dear Comrades! The holding of all-union symposia on aquatic Oligochaeta seems to have become a tradition: here we are together again for what is already a fourth such symposium, being held this time in Tbilisi, as was proposed at the preceding symposium which took place in Togliatti. At our Institute research on aquatic oligochae- tes is carried out as part of a program of comprehensive hydro- biological and ecological studies of Georgia's inland water bodies: • its reservoirs, lakes and rivers. I think it would be correct to describe this research as being basically ecological and faunistic in character; by now it has already yielded enough data to give us a sufficiently clear understanding of such matters as the species composition of the oligochaete populations in the inland water bo- dies of the Georgian Republic, the ecological and geographical distribution and the distinguishing ecological characters of indivi- dual species, the ecological groupings of species and their relative quantities in different biotopes. The study of aquatic oligochaetes is arousing more and more interest among biologists everywhere; this is made evident by both the growing number of publications on this subject and by the fact that the first International Symposium on Aquatic Oligochaeta Bio- • logy was held recently in Sidney, Canada. 4 This interest is quite understandable, considering the role that oligochaetes play as an important component of aquatic ecosystems and, in particular, as valuable food for fish. 4 Thus, the study of aquatic oligochaetes is important in that it forms an integral part of the study of aquatic ecosystems and of the biological production processes that take place in them. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the country-wide research on aquatic oligochaetes is bound, from the taxonomic, faunistic, zoogeographical and ecological points of view, to have not only theoretical but also practical significance to the fishing industry in its efforts to in- crease the rate of exploitation of the various water bodies. The agenda of the present Symposium corresponds, in general, to what has just been said since it includes papers covering a wide • range of subjects connected with the study of aquatic oligochaetes, namely their taxonomy, phylogenesis, fauna, geography, biology and ecology. We hope that the Fourth All-Union Symposium on Aquatic Oli- gochaeta, which is about to start its work, will help the specialists taking part in it to get to know each other's work and to exchange their experience, that it will lead to closer and more successful cooperation and to more effective research in this field. It gives me great pleasure to state that present at this Symposium are scientists from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Borok, Frunze, Odessa, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Togliatti, Tartu, Tomsk, Magadan, Vil- nius, Chelyabinsk, Kharkov, Yaroslavl, Dnepropetrovsk and Tbilisi. • I -sh2_Llnot read out the agenda of the present Symposium 5 because its copies, as well as copies of the general plan of our work, have been distributed among all the participants. Dear friends, let me greet you all on behalf of the Orga- nizing Committee of the Symposium and wish you successful work, so that the Tbilisi Symposium could make a significant contribution to the study of aquatic oligochaetes. The session is declared open. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF AQUATIC OLIGOCHAETES by T.L. Poddubnaya and A.J. Bakanov (Institute of the Biology of Inland Waters, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Borok) • It is well known that the quantitative distribution of oli- gochaetes over their biotope is practically never uniform. Some re- presentatives of the Tubificidae (Tubifex tubifex Mull., Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Clap., L. ukedemianus Clap.) are capable of forming dense masses ranging in size from 10-12 cm2 to several square meters. Alsterberg (6) described such masses as "local aggregations", while Malevich (5) called them "pillows". They consist of enormous numbers of worms packed tightly together. Such dense aggregations are formed either under unfavorable conditions, in which case they perform a protective function, or whenever an inflow of water rich in organic matter creates an abundance of food (4, 7). At such high • densities, the distribution of oligochaetes in samples taken from • inside the aggregations must be nearly uniform. A few very rare in- stances huve been reported of oligochaetes being uniformly distri- buted over the entire area of a water body. Normally, the distribution of oligochaetes, determined empi- rically from quantitative estimates of the degree of aggregation, is described by the negative binomial or lognormal statistical dis- tributions, which is indicative of the existence of aggregations (9). We distinguish several levels of aggregation - from macro- to microaggregation (1). On lake Pleshcheevo we studied the macro- aggregation of the oligochaetes (aggregation over the entire area of the lake) and their microuggregation (aggregation over a rela- tively homogeneous part of the biotope). To study the macroaggregation and its seasonal dynamics, • samples were taken at 50 stations distributed in an unrestricted random manner (completely random sampling). The samples were obtained by means of a DAK-250 grab sampler (1). The data provided by the samples were used to compute Lloyd's