Zooplankton biomass, size structure, and associated metabolic fluxes with focus on its roles at the chlorophyll maximum layer during the plankton-contaminant MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE cruise.

Recent studies have demonstrated that plankton can be a key pathway for the uptake and transfer of contaminants entering the marine environment up to top predators. The plankton-contaminant MERITE-HIPPOCAMPE cruise was devoted to quantifying contaminants in water and the whole plankton size range (10 size fractions) at 10 stations along a north-south transect in the western Mediterranean Sea from the French to the Tunisian coasts through the Provençal and Algerian basins. Pumping and filtering devices and net sampling have been used for collecting very high amounts of small particles and planktonic organisms in the chlorophyll maximum layer (CML). The present paper characterizes the zooplankton components for which the contaminant measurements were carried out. At each station, a horizontal towed Hydro-Bios net with a 60 μm mesh-size net was used to discriminate 5 size-fractions from 60 μm to a few mm. For each size-fraction, one part of the sample was used for dry weight measurements and the other one for estimating the contribution to biomass of detritus, phytoplankton, and among zooplankton of the major taxonomic groups based on the imagery tools ZOOSCAN and FLOWCAM. In each zooplankton size fraction, metabolic rates were calculated from the size spectrum to estimate trophic and excretion fluxes flowing through this fraction. These observations were compared to a similar analysis of tows in the upper layer (vertical) and the surface layer (horizontal). The total sampled biomass concentration at the CML was higher than in the water column (COL) and much higher than at the surface (SURF) in most of the stations, but in the CML and COL a substantial contribution was due to detritus mostly concentrated in the smallest size-fractions (60-200 μm and 200-500 μm). Absolute values of zooplankton biomass show neither a clear spatial pattern nor a significant difference between strata. The CML layer was dominated by copepods similarly to COL and SURF, but presented a higher contribution of nauplii and a near absence of appendicularians. At some stations, crustaceans and gelatinous plankton could be important contributors to CML. The zooplankton biomass composition of the two smallest fractions (<500 μm) was dominated by nauplii, small copepods and, occasionally, by small miscellaneous organisms (mostly pteropodes). In contrast, clear differences between stations appeared for the largest fractions (>500 μm) due to large crustaceans, gelatinous organisms, and chaetognaths. These changes in biomass composition according to size fractions suggest a progressive trophic shift from dominant herbivory in the smallest fractions to more contrasted trophic structure (including carnivory) in the largest fractions. The daily carbon demand and the N and P excretion of zooplankton were on average higher at the CML but with no significant difference with COL. The zooplankton grazing represented 2.7 to 22.7 % of the phytoplankton stock per day, whereas its excretion represented a daily N and P recycling compared to dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus stocks ranging respectively from 0.2 to 19 % and from 0 to 21 %. This information should help in the interpretation of the content of various contaminants in zooplankton fractions.