Vertical distribution of mesozooplankton in the central and eastern Arabian Sea during the winter monsoon |
| |
Authors: | Padmavati, G. Haridas, P. Nair, K.K.C. Gopalakrishnan, T.C. Shiney, P. Madhupratap, M. |
| |
Affiliation: | Regional Centre of NIO P.B. 1913 Cochin 682 018 1National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula, Goa 403 004, India |
| |
Abstract: | The vertical distribution of mesozooplankton in the centraland eastern Arabian Sea was investigated during the winter monsoonin 1995. Samples were analysed from discrete depth zones definedaccording to oxygen and temperature profiles of the water column.Zooplankton had higher standing stock in the mixed layer comparedto the strata below. The mixed layer had 78.5% of the totalcolumn biomass, while the deepest (5001000 m) layer accountedfor only 0.9%. The stratum between 500 and 1000 m had the lowestabundance of copepods as well as other zooplankton. A notablefeature was that zooplankton biomass and density did not showmuch variations between coastal and offshore regions. Copepodawere the dominant group. Herbivores were generally more abundantat all depths. A total of 94 species of calanoid copepods wereidentified. Based on vertical distributions, they were assignedto four groups: (i) species restricted to the upper 200 m; (ii)predominantly surface-living species with tails to deeper waters;(iii) sparser deeper-living species generally confined below300 m; (iv) species occurring throughout the water column. Diversitywas fairly high in all strata with equitability being higherin the deeper strata. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 Oxford 等数据库收录! |
|