Arctic pond populations of Daphnia pulex on Svalbard, off the north No
rwegian coast, were assayed for clonal richness. A total of 21 unique
clones from 20 ponds were distinguished by allozyme electrophoresis at
seven enzyme loci. Seventeen clones showed unbalanced electromorph ba
nding patterns at certain enzyme loci, which suggests that they are po
lyploids. Each pond harboured an average of 1.7 clones (range 1-4). Th
e most common clone was found in six ponds, and accounted for 23.5 per
cent of all animals screened. Most clones were found only in one or t
wo ponds. No discernible geographical patterns could be detected in cl
onal distributions, and all sampled areas held unique clones. The data
suggest that our sampling effort has uncovered only a small subset of
a much larger array of clones on this remote arctic archipelago, and
indicates that the genetic structure of this apomictic complex is one
of the most fragmented among asexual organisms.