MESOZOOPLANKTON IN THE NEAR-BOTTOM LAYER OF THE SOUTH-WESTERN INDIAN-OCEAN

In the area between 12-degrees and 33-degrees-S the abundance of animals decreases from the level 30 m to the level 2 m above the bottom. Copepods dominate by the number. The proportion of a merozooplankton increases from the South to the North of the area. The common calanoids at 30 and 2 m above the bottom are the true pelagic animals. Only one predominant species (Chiridius pacificus) on the Walters shoal at 1000 m depth is probably an obligate near-bottom species. At the depths 200 to 1000 m in the near-bottom layer the proportion of interzonal calanoids is great.