Zooplankton community metabolism in the upper 200 m of the central Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden

Abstract

In February/March 1987, zooplankton (>100 μm) standing stock and community respiration were measured in the euphotic zone and in the underlying layer, the lower epipelagic zone, down to 200 m. The euphotic zone exhibited a significantly higher biomass and respiration rate. Standing stock and respiration in the Gulf of Aden exceeded those in the Red Sea by factors of three and two respectively (station means for the euphotic zone: 10.3 ± 1.3 mg C m-3 and 3.4 ± 0.6 mg O2 m-3 d-1 in the Gulf of Aden; 3.4 ± 1.4 mg C m-3 and 2.6 ± 0.9 mg O2 m-3 d-1 in the Red Sea, but weight-specific respiration was highest in the Red Sea euphotic zone, amounting to an average of 0.57 ± 0.13 mg O3 mg C-1 d-1. This corresponds to a daily carbon turnover rate of 17.2% body carbon per day whereas in the Gulf of Aden turnover averaged only 11.4% C d-1. -from Authors