The Global Plankton Database: an inventory and data from the Former Soviet Union expeditions

At present time, there is a lack of knowledge on the interannual climate-related variability of zooplankton communities of the tropical Atlantic, central Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea, due to the absence of appropriate databases. In the mid latitudes, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the dominant mode of atmospheric fluctuations over eastern North America, the northern Atlantic Ocean and Europe. Therefore, one of the issues that need to be addressed through data synthesis is the evaluation of interannual patterns in species abundance and species diversity over these regions in regard to the NAO. The database has been used to investigate the ecological role of the NAO in interannual variations of mesozooplankton abundance and biomass along the zonal array of the NAO influence. Basic approach to the proposed research involved: (1) development of co-operation between experts and data holders in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UK, and USA to rescue and compile the oceanographic data sets and release them on CD-ROM, (2) organization and compilation of a database based on FSU cruises to the above regions, (3) analysis of the basin-scale interannual variability of the zooplankton species abundance, biomass, and species diversity.

Abundance and biomass of near-surface ichthioplankton in the Western Pacific

During Cruise 50 of R/V Vityaz ichthyoplankton in surface waters was collected by a neuston otter trawl for many days in four study areas of the Western Tropical Pacific. Obtained results describe quantitative distribution of ichthyoplankton and small fishes in surface waters. The near-surface layer of the ocean (about 30-40 cm thick) can be considered as a special biotope, its population forms an independent biocoenosis - hyponeuston. Species composition of this community (particularly, composition of fish components) in the tropical zone has been studied to some degree, but structure of the biocoenosis as well as biomass and quantitative relationships of species have not been investigated at all. In this paper the authors discuss the method of collecting surface samples that is quite suitable for quantitative calculations and also present the first results obtained using this method, which described quantitative distribution of ichthyoplankton and small fishes in surface waters.