| Summary: | Coastal submarine canyons are worldwide recognized as nutrient-rich environments, and therefore high productive zones which enhanced diversity in all trophic levels, and are often inhabited by endangered and/or emblematic species. In this sense most canyons complete the criteria that give them high priority to be declared as a marine protected area (MPA). This is the case of the Aviles Canyon (AC) which is under the process of declaration as a MPA; although few studies have been focused on investigate the physical, geological and biological processes taken place within this exceptional geographic feature of the northern Spanish coast. Therefore, researches that complete the base line information for understanding and managing of this zone are required. Thus, with the aim of generating knowledge about the distribution and interaction of the water masses and the features of the canyon, and how this interaction might affects the biological community that inhabits the AC, full-depth physicochemical parameters and zooplankton profiles from 0 to 4700 m. (when possible), were sampled in nine and five localities using a CTD-O multiparmeter instrument and a multiple opening/closing MOCNESS net of 330 µm mesh (respectively), in the course of BIOCANT I CRUISE, performed during the spring bloom of march 2012. By means of a nondestructive automatized digital imaging system, which allows taking different measurements of zooplankton individuals preserving the organisms for further studies, the biomass, metabolic rates and size spectra of Mesopelagic zooplankton in the Áviles Canyon and its surrounding continental shelf were analyzed. Results show that the Canyon exerts increasing mixing water towards the head of the canyon which mix the Eastern North Atlantic Waters and the Mediterranean Waters and re-suspend nutrients, enhancing productivity close to the photic layer, evidenced as the maximum biomass found in most of the stations. Universidad de Oviedo
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