New Zooplankton Studies in the Guaymas Basin
(Gulf of California)

G. M. Vinogradov¹, M. E. Vinogradov², and E. I. Musaeva²

¹ Severtsov Institute for the Problems of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

² Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Received May 11, 2004

Abstract—Plankton above the vent fields of the Guaymas Basin was studied over the entire water column with
the use of a Mir deep-sea manned submersible and BR plankton nets. Our studies confirmed that there is a cer-
tain increase in the zooplankton biomass in the near-bottom layers. The reason for this phenomenon is not clear,
but it may be related either to the concentration of food particles precipitating from the highly-productive sur-
face waters or to the effect of the changes in the concentration of dissolved oxygen or to the influence of hydro-
thermal production. This paper also deals with the influence of the oxygen minimum layer at a depth of 450–
800 m on the plankton.

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