Fall and spring zooplankton community structures in the southern Adriatic sea: a preliminary survey for wp3 and wp11 activities (COCONET project).

The most part of the stations included in the CoCoNET project sampling plane have been previously investigated by the multinet BIONESS from bottom (sampling depth max: 800m) to surface, in October 2000 and April-May 2001. In both periods, higher values of zooplankton abundances and biomass were detected along the Italian than Albanian coasts. Zooplankton was mostly constituted by holoplankton in both seasons; in spring, the contribution of meroplankton increased with higher values along Albanian coasts, mainly due to bivalve and polychaete larvae. Clausocalanus furcatus and Temora stylifera adults and copepodites accounted for the main part of autumnal copepod assemblage whereas Paracalanus parvus and Acartia clausi for the spring one. Shannon diversity index reached the peak (3.14) in autumn along the Albanian coast at 20-40m.