Distribution of marine, benthic macro-organisms at Svalbard ...

75°N
70°N
Greenland
Jan Mayen
“Svalbard box”
5°W 0° 5°E 10°E 15°E 20°E 25°E 30°E
Fig. 1. The locations of Svalbard, Bjørnøya (Bear Island) and Jan Mayen. The geographical
area around Svalbard dealt with in the present report is indicated as the “Svalbard box”.
16
Svalbard
Collection of information from published sources
Bear Island
Norway
The published sources of information are presented in Appendix 2. However, the quality of
these references as sources for records of marine organisms is somewhat variable. Some
articles give relatively precise information including depth, latitude and longitude for the
presented records, while others are more general, on a “this species is recorded near
Svalbard” level.
Available information on water depths and geographical location where the recorded species
were found is compiled in the database. However, some more general statements such as
“this species is found in Isfjorden” are included. This type of record is more valuable than the
very general statements such as the above “this species is recorded near Svalbard”, and, as
such, an effort has been made to incorporate such information. The investigated area
therefore has been divided into different “zones”, which are indicated in Fig. 2. The coastal
waters of Svalbard are divided into 17 such zones, which are denoted with two digits. A first
digit of 1 denotes a zone at the westcoast, a first digit of 2 denotes the northern coast, a first
digit of 3 denotes the eastern coast and a first digit of 4 denotes the southern coasts. Also a
distinction is made between “coastal” and “fjordic” areas. A legend describing the borders
between these zones is given in Appendix 1.
Zone 5 is the coastal areas of Bjørnøya and zone 6 the coastal and shelf areas of Jan Mayen.