Dear friends and colleagues,
I am pleased to announce the publication of my new polychaete book.
Citation: Jirkov I. A. 2001. Polychaeta of the Arctic Ocean, Moscow, Yanus-K
Press, 632 pp. See http://rav.sio.rssi.ru/~lena/book/book.htm for additional
information
In completing this book, I want to thank the colleagues who have contributed
to the various chapters included in this book (see the list of contributing
authors). This book would never have happened without financial support
from Akvaplan-Niva (Norway) and the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research.
This monograph is dedicated to taxonomy and distribution of polychaetes of
the Arctic Ocean. Taxonomy of polychaete in general is notoriously confused
and arctic polychaetes are not an exception. Although the first arctic
polychaetes were described by Linne (1758), arctic polychaete fauna is still
insufficiently known. Most original descriptions of earlier species are
absolutely unsatisfactory, yet many of them are type species of genera. Later
the same species names were also recorded from all over the world and the
original cursory descriptions were extended according to the new material.
As a result, species and genera became even less defined, often with being
large species complexes. A long list of synonyms and incorrect
identifications led to the widespread idea that polychaetes are poor
biogeographic indicators and cannot be used in biogeographic studies. Thus,
a detailed st graph is to put together up-to-date information on taxonomy and
distribution of polychaetes within the Arctic Ocean.
The initiation of this project was originally stimulated by a surprising lack of a
comprehensive account of the Arctic fauna, including polychaetes. Previous
the most complete taxonomic guide to the arctic benthos was published in
mid 20th century in Russian (Zatsepin, 1948). It included neither fauna of the
Norwegian and Greenland seas, penetrating into the Arctic from the the
Atlantic, nor deep-water fauna that had been insufficiently known at that time.
It also became outdated in half of the century after its publication. A book by
Berkeleys (1952) on the fauna of Canadian Arctic is too cursory and limited
in geographic coverage. None of monographic treatments of individual
polychaete taxa (Streltsov, 1973; Uschakov, 1972, 1982; Khlebovich, 1996;
Arwidsson, 1906; Fauchald, 1963, 1974, 1992; Holthe, 1986a; George,
Hartmann-Schroeder, 1985; Gidholm, 1966; Muir, Chambers, 1998; Pax rs)
treat all families, the studied areas only partly overlap, and most of these
papers are outdated to some degree. The most recent taxonomic guide to
arctic polychaetes (Jirkov 1989) included only selected polychaete families.
Therefore, the current book is unprecedented in scope and coverage.
The book consists of two parts. The general part describes external
polychaete morphology as well as methods of material collection,
preservation and storage. It also contains detailed analysis of biogeographic
distribution of polychaetes within the Arctic basin. The taxonomic part is
based on extensive material deposited in numerous taxonomic collections in
Russia and around the world (see the list of studied collections). The
sampling area covers most of the Arctic Ocean, from the Faeroe Islands to
the Bering Straight, from the upper shelf to abyssal depths. In total, more
than 10 000 samples and over 200 000 specimens have been studied. A
total of 458 species descriptions, (including 265 based on newly studied
material) species are presented in the guide of which nine are descriptions of
the species new to science in the Chaetopteridae (1); Flabelligeridae (2);
Nephtyidae (1); S s easy to use because of its user-friendly pictorial
taxonomic keys to the families, genera and species. Detailed species
descriptions are abundantly illustrated by 566 figures (more than half of them
are original illustrations not published anywhere else before), and
accompanied by 211 original distribution maps.
I believe that the book will be a valuable resource to polychaete researchers
and benthic biologists working on the Arctic fauna and the fauna of adjacent
regions. If you would like to buy a copy, please write to Lena Kupriyanova
<Lena.Kupriyanova at flinders.edu.au> Department of Biological Sciences,
Flinders University of South Australia, G.P.O. Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001
Australia. Please include a check drawn from an US bank or an international
money order for US$35.00 if you want a book plus $5 postage international
(via surface) or US$15.00 if you prefer a CD (PDF file of the book plus a
bonus of pdf files of all my publications in Russian with their English
translations) plus $2 postage international (via air)
Despite the scope and detail level of the edition, the project is not yet
completed. Although we tried to include all polychaete families in the guide,
the coverage of the families is not uniform. This situation reflect the state of
taxonomy of various families. Families Ampharetidae, Aphroditidae,
Eunicidae, Flabelligeridae, Glyceridae, Goniadidae, Nephtyidae, Nereidae,
Onuphidae, Pectinariidae, Phyllodocidae, Sabellariidae, Scalibregmidae,
Serpulidae, Spionidae, Spirorbidae and Terebellidae are relatively well
studied and therefore, the book contains the most reliable information on
these families. In contrast, families such as Capitellidae, Cirratulidae,
Hesionidae, Magelonidae, Polynoidae, Syllidae, remain unstudied. Although
there is a large number of publications on these families, the original
collections were either studied partially or the results of our study only
showed In case of Polynoidae, Sigalionidae, Pholoidae, Lumbrineridae,
Sabellidae, and some others very preliminary overviews were compiled from
the literature. For Capitellidae, Cirratulidae, Hesionidae, Magelonidae,
Syllidae, and some others only family diagnoses are provided. Remaining
families (Opheliidae and Sabellidae) hold intermediate positions: taxonomic
keys are given and unresolved taxonomic problems are pointed out.
Another obvious downside is that the book is in Russian, although this
problem is partly alleviated by numerous illustrations and distribution maps.
We recognize that this limits the potential users of the book and are currently
looking for a source of funding to translate the existing book into English. Also
we would like to extend the book by studying arctic material deposited in
North American museums in order to balance the geographic coverage that
is currently biased towards Euro-Asian sector of the Arctic Ocean. Another
way to improve the book is to extend the coverage of individual families. The
result of such a project would be a publication of the most comprehensive up-
to-date source of information on arctic polychaetes. We appreciate any
suggestions and hints about possible source of funding for such a project
and are open to collaboration with the interested colleagues.
Wormly Igor Jirkov
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Igor A. Jirkov, Dr. Sc.
Senior Scientific Researcher
Department of Hydrobiology,
Biology Faculty
Moscow State University, Moscow 119899 RUSSIA
mailto:jirkov at ijirkov.home.bio.msu.ru
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