Composition of ichthyoplankton and horizontal and vertical distribution of fish larvae in the Great Meteor Seamount area in September 1998

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

24 stations above and near the Great Meteor Seamount, central north Atlantic, have been sampled at eight depth strata in late summer 1998 by a modified MOCNESS. Some 18.800 fish larvae were collected and specimens were identified to species and coarser systematic levels, respectively. Taxa typical of the high sea remote from coastal areas dominated the fish larvae assembly. But species which normally are found on the shelf or at the slope occurred as well in the plankton samples, mainly above and fairly close to the 300m deep seamount, obviously keeping away from the oceanic region several thousand meters deep. Eighteen of a total of more than 150 identified fish larvae taxa belonged to the neritic province. One of these species was the third most abundant larvae found so far during this investigation, namely Chlorophthalmus agassizii. Concentration and horizontal and vertical distribution of selected species are discussed as well as migration behaviour in dependence of day and night situation and sea bottom depth. It is considered whether this seamount may be regarded as an isolated, just 1465km² large shallow water area settled permanently by a coastal fish community. The question is treated why this may be so, i.e. which kind of non biotic and biotic factors could be responsible for such a situation.