Vertical distribution of Arctic zooplankton in summer: eastern Canadian archipelago

• Published in: Journal of Plankton Research
• Main Authors: Longhurst, Alan, Sameoto, Douglas, Herman, Alex
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1984
• Subjects: Articles; Arctic; Kane; Canadian Archipelago; Kane Basin; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/6/1/137; https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/6.1.137

Twenty-three LHPR hauls from 700 m, or near the bottom, in the eastern Canadian Arctic passages indicate that diel migration is absent or negligible in late summer, and that seasonal and ontogenetic migrations dominate the pattern of zooplankton vertical distribution. Though there is some relationship between zooplankton and the shallow maxima of chlorophyll and inferred production, the bulk of the herbivore population had already descended to winter depths by August except in Kane Basin (75°–79° N) where ice break-up had recently occurred, and spring bloom conditions obtained: here, herbivores were crowded surfacewards. Analysis of population age-structure extended the area for which multi-year generation times appear to occur in some copepod populations. Models of trophic relations in this part of the Arctic should not seek to balance algal production and pelagic herbivore consumption, for much of the plant production sinks unutilized to the deep-sea floor.