VERTICAL-DISTRIBUTION OF ZOOPLANKTON IN THE FRONTAL ZONE OF THE GULF-STREAM AND LABRADOR CURRENT

Zooplankton data collected during September 1995 in the North West Atl antic at 41 degrees 39'N, 49 degrees 58'W (the location of the site of the 'Titanic' wreck) were analysed. The region investigated was chara cterized by a very sharp frontal zone between the Gulf Stream and the main stream of the Labrador Current. The total plankton biomass in the water column was very high. The macroplankton biomass values below th e 600 m layer were significantly higher as compared with the similar v alues measured before in other productive boreal regions of the Atlant ic and Pacific oceans. A lot of dead mesoplankton animals occurred in the deep layers. The reason was that the cold-water mesoplankton advec ted by the Labrador Current died off intensively within the deep layer s of the frontal zone and were used as a food resource by the macropla nkton carnivores and scavengers that were very abundant there.