THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EPIPELAGIC ECOSYST EMS OF THE PACIFIC-OCEAN ONTHE BASE OF BOTH SATELLITE AND FIELD OBSERVATIONS - THE STOCK OF PLANKTON IN THE EPIPELAGIAL

The area of the Pacific Ocean was divided into regions according to th e surface chlorophyll concentration determined by the satellite Nimbus -7. The areas occupied by the waters of 7 distinguished chlorophyll co ncentration levels were calculated. The information obtained on about 300 ecosystemic stations of IO RAS ships i upper 200-m layer was taken into account. Both geometric mean biomasses and stock values of phyto plankton, bacteria, protozoa and mesoplankton for every climatologic s eason and average for year were calculated for every chlorophyll conce ntration level. The year average stock values for all Pacific were the following: phytoplankton - 134 x 10(6), bacteria - 86 x 10(6), protoz oa - 26 x 10(6), mesoplankton - 185 x 10(6) t C. The seasonal stack va riations of all the listed groups were shown to be insignificant. The reason is that in winter the stocks in the temperate regions decrease but the areas occupied by oligotrophic waters reduce, the opposite pat tern taking place in spring and summer. The seasonal stability of the plankton stocks and, consequently, the metabolic process influence by far the peculiarities of the carbon cycle it the ocean.