| The abundance and vertical distribution of micrometazoans sampled with fine nets of 0.05 mm mesh size were studied in different regions of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea down to a maximum depth of 1850 m. Significant east-west differences in biomass, total metazoan abundance and/or species composition of non-calanoid copepods were not recorded. The vertical gradient for total plankton biomass and abundance of major taxa was more or less consistent, showing no secondary maximum at inter mediate water layers. The copepods were dominated by poecilostomatoids (genus Oncaea) which accounted for about 50 % of total copepod numbers in the water column. The greatest relative abundance of poecilostomatoids (up to 80 %) was found in the mesopelagic zone, at 100 m to... |
