Liashenko A. Benthic invertebrates of the lower Danube

The regularities of taxonomic composition formation and quantitative characteristics of benthic invertebrates in different water bodies of the delta are established; the main types of successions in the delta, as well as interaction of communities at different levels of organization and manifestations of the edge effect are investigated. The concept of biodiversity formation, structure and functioning of benthic invertebrate communities of the Danube Delta is proposed. The main factors of which are 1) the natural delta location at the intersection of three zoogeographical regions and the confluence of a powerful poorly regulated river into the inland, highly desalinated, low tide sea; refugium of previous epochs fauna, due to which species richness is formed by representatives of three zoogeographical regions; 2) the presence of a full-scale and welldeveloped hydrographic network, represented by a wide range of continental surface water bodies; 3) the diversity of key environmental factors and the ranges breadth of their manifestations, which leads to high biotope diversity; 4) the dynamics of natural processes of the extension delta, which determines the spatio-temporal continuum of ecological successions and the completeness of their stages representation.