Phytoplankton samples were collected at 62 stations in the European Arctic Seas and the Faroe — Shetland Islands area. Over 30 species of dinoflagellates were found. 22 species are illustrated by original drawings. The data on synonyms, size or size variability on the distribution and environmental factors (temperature and salinity) are given.

Phytoplankton samples were collected at 74 stations in the European Arctic seas, 28 species of the armoured din oft age Hates being found. Thirteen dinoflagellates are illustrated by original drawings. The data on synonyms, size or size variation, localities and environmental factors (temperature and salinity) at the surface are given.

In 1920 qualitative and quantitative benthos samples collected in Barents Sea sublittoral in the years 1951-1983 154 species, 77 genera and 30 families of Amphipoda Gammaridea were identified. Species diversity was highest among the Lysianassidae, Oedicerotidae, Ampcliscidae, Calliopiidae and Pleustidae. Ampelisca eschrichti clearly dominated the material. This same species, plus Haploops setosa and Anonyx nugax were both the most frequently occurring and most numerous species. The distribution of amphipods in the Barents Sea sublittoral varies both in diversity and numbers by region, depth, sediments and water temperature. Zoogeographical changes are discussed in the present paper. Altogether 331 species of amphipods have been hitherto collected in the Barents Sea, of which 317 species, 126 genera and 39 families belong to the suborder Gammaridea.

In the years 1987-1989, within the frames of the international program "Greenland Sea Project", the Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences carried out the oceanographic investigations in the energoactive zones of the Northern Atlantic. The paper presents some results of these investigations, characterizing interannual variability of aero- and hydrophysical fields and the causal connections between hydrological and hydrobiological anomalies. Main results of these investigations indicate that the summer season of 1988 was an anomaly in the region of confluence of Barents and Norwegian Seas. This result is irrefutably confirmed by biological data concerning species, and hydrophysical data, such as light attenuation coefficient, fluorescence, spatial distributions of water temperature, salinity, density and current velocity, as well as mass and heat fluxes. It arises from these information that the southern border of the confluence zone was normally the heat „source", while in 1988 it was the heat „sink". The results obtained indicate two reasons responsible for such a situation. The first is the anticyclonic eddy structure of cold Barents Sea waters, penetrating the confluence zone. The second reason seems to be a mechanism blocking the transport of Atlantic water masses through the transect between Faeroe and Shetland Islands.