Gelatinous zooplankton on the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge Distribution patterns of trawl‐collected planktonic cnidarians

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The Mid‐Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between 40°N (Azores) and 63°N (Iceland) is the largest topographic feature in the North Atlantic Ocean. However, the fauna and ecological significance of mid‐ocean ridges has remained poorly understood. This is especially true for the morphologically fragile gelatinous fauna, which has been poorly studied due to methodological constraints. From 4 June to 5 August 2004 the G.O. Sars expedition along the northern Mid‐Atlantic Ridge was a major field study initiative under the MAR‐ECO project (www.mar‐eco.no), a field project under the Census of Marine Life. An extensive sampling program for pelagic fauna was performed, using a suite of nets, trawls, UVP and ROV observations. Here we present the composition, abundance and vertical distribution of medusae and siphonophores collected with pelagic midwater trawls along the northern Mid‐Atlantic Ridge (MAR) June 2004