Hydrobiological investigations of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Far-Eastern seas during the period after the Second World War. 1. Investigations of the central institutes

This paper discusses the history of hydrobiological investigations in the Far-Eastern seas performed by three centers, the Leningrad center, the Moscow center, and the Far-Eastern center during the period following the Second World War (from 1946 to the present). It is shown that most of the scientific expeditions in the Far-Eastern seas took place during this period; investigations of the great depths of the northwestern Pacific, including the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench that borders these seas, were initiated and have been successfully continued; comprehensive floristic and faunistic materials were used in numerous papers dealing with descriptions of new species, identification keys, and reference manuals. The main characteristics of the quantitative distribution of certain species, communities, trophic assemblages, and ecosystems have been revealed.