Известия ТИНРО (Dec 2016)
First experience of using a new database on net zooplankton in the Far-Eastern Seas and adjacent Pacific waters
Abstract
Unique database on zooplankton collected by 0.1 m2 Juday planktonic net (mesh size 0.168 mm) in the Chukchi, Bering, Okhotsk, and Japan Seas and the North Pacific in 1984-2013 is presented. History of its creation, sources and volume of the data are described and the first operating experience and prospects of its using for applied and fundamental researches of marine biological resources are explained. Some new results based on this database are discussed. In particular, 5 tabular reference-books of species composition, occurrence and abundance of zooplankton for the main fishing grounds in the Russian part of this region were prepared and published in 2014-2015, where the information is summarized by species, stages of development, size fractions, biostatistical areas, water layers, light and dark time of day, four seasons, and quasi-decadal periods. Charts of spatio-temporal distribution of certain taxonomic and dimensional groups are drawn. Assumption is offered on negative dependence of zooplankton body size on water temperature, that needs additional verification. Vertical zooplankton migrations are considered and there is concluded that its biomass in the upper layer increases usually in the nighttime in the Okhotsk and Japan Seas but in the daytime in the Bering Sea and North Pacific, therefore attempts to recalculate the daytime biomass to the nighttime one using constant coefficients give opposite results for these pairs of regions. Prospects for developing of GIS and atlases of zooplankton for the North Pacific are discussed with examples of charts for the data generalized by abovementioned criteria, but this application is postponed until the best times because of funding reduction.
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