Scientific papers on the Belgian Arctic Expedition [1907] | Lifewatch regional portal

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Scientific papers on the Belgian Arctic Expedition [1907]

In July 1907, under the command of Duc d'Orléans and led by captain Adrien de Gerlache, the Belgica left the harbor of the Norwegian Vardø to sail for an Arctic expedition exploring the Kara and Barents Sea and the coasts of Novaya Zemlya. Beginning of September 1907 the Belgica returned home. The biological samples collected by Louis Stappers, the Belgian zoologist on board, were initially given to Gustave Gilson. He worked together with several other Belgian marine scientists to process the samples: Philippe Dautzenberg and French zoologist Henry Fischer determined the molluscs and brachiopods, Alphonse Meunier studied the microplankton of the Kara and Barents Sea, and Louis Stappers himself did the taxonomic research of the collected crustaceans.

CITATION
Broch H.; Dautzenberg Ph.; Fauvel P.; Fischer H.; Grieg J.A.; Meunier A.; Nordgaard O.; Richters F.; Stappers L.; (2016): Scientific papers on the Belgian Arctic Expedition in 1907 (Duc D'Orleans). https://doi.org/10.14284/69

DATA
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SOURCES
Duc d'Orléans. Campagne arctique de 1907.

RELATED INFORMATION
RV Belgica / Belgica expedition 1907
Adrien de Gerlache
Louis Stappers
Gustave Gilson
Philippe Dautzenberg
Alphonse Meunier

The 1907 Arctic Expedition dataset includes 1,254 records (1,215 species and 39 genus level observations) for 79 sampling stations covering the area along the coasts of Novaya Zembla, the Kara and Barents Sea, and the Matochkin Strait. Data were digitized from 8 original expedition reports including 7 reports concerning the collection of specific macrofauna species (echinoderms, molluscs and brachiopods, polychaetes, cnidarians, tardigrades, bryozoans, and malacostracans) and 1 report sampling the horizontal and vertical microplankton community in the Kara and Barents Sea. Taxa belonged to 16 phyla of which the Arthropoda were the most abundant with 22.2% of observations, followed by the Bryozoa (12.6%), the Ochrophyta (12.4%) and the Annelida (11.1%). The phylum with the highest species richness was the Ochrophyta (139 species of which 135 belonged to the marine diatoms (Bacillariophyceae)), followed by the Arthropoda (93 species) represented by only 1 class (Malacostraca).