The abundance, composition and seasonal distribution of epizooplankton in coastal and offshore waters of the eastern Mediterranean
Abstract
An analysis of the plankton of the Eastern Mediterranean was carried out on a quantitative basis within the framework of a five-year research programme on the »Biota of the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea«. The present report refers both to the coastal as well as to the offshore epizooplankton communities of the Eastern Mediterranean recorded and analyzed over a one-year period in 1968.
The results of the neritic zooplankton analysis of the Eastern Mediteranean indicated the presence of two main annual peaks, in April-May and Decemeber 1968, both consisting of large populations of pelagic copepods. The December peak, however, consisted also of large populations of other zooplankton groups, chiefly chaetognaths, pteropods and larval decapods. A similar trend relating to the dominance of pelagic copepods was also observed in the offshore zooplankton communities of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Among the pelagic copepods, the calanoids dominated the plankton communities both in the coastal as well as in the offshore waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the offshore waters, the pteropods and the cladocerans constituted elements of major importance next to the copepods as biomass formers.
The qualitative examination of the zooplankton in the coastal and offshore waters enabled the selection of organisms characteristic of the two areas which may be used as indicator species.
