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Microzooplankton in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean off the North-Western coasts of Africa

V. E. Zaika

Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, 2 Nahimov Avenue, Sevastopol 99011, Ukraine

Summary

In August through October 1970 shipboard laboratory studies were made of the abundance of micro-zooplankton with the aid of the method of thickening the water samples by filtration and the subsequent counting of living organisms under the microscope. The basic groups (in order of decreasing abundance) are: infusorians, nauplii, copepodites, radiolarians, appendicularians and others (rotifers, worm and mollusk larvae). The concentration of infusorians was seldom greater than 100 specimens per I L, though it could be underestimated. The concentration of nauplii was often between 20 and 30 specimens per I L. The studies of the vertical distribution of micro-zooplankton have shown that the concentration maximum in the Mediterranean Sea is recorded in the 20 to 30 m layer, irrespective of time of a day, whereas in the Atlantic Ocean two maxima are found in the 10 .to 20 m and in the 50 to 75 m layers.

Okeanologiya. 1972. - Vol.12, iss.3. - pp.485-491.

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