Distribution of biomass of zooplankton in the Kuroshio area of the East China Sea

This paper makes an analysis and study of the plankton samples collected from the Kuroshio and its adjacent area in the north of the East China Sea during the seven successive years(from 1986 to 1992) in the implementation of the programme "China-Japan Joint Research on the Kuroshio" as well as a brief summary of the distribution of the biotnass of food zooplankton and its relation to the oceanic environment.The results indicate that the biomass of zooplankton in the study area is relatively low,with en annual mean of 71.22 mg/m³ only.The seasonal variation of biomass is not obvious and salinity is an important factor influencing seasonal and annual variations of zooplankton biomass in the study area.The Kuroshio front in the East China Sea and the Tsushima Warm Current front divide the study area into two parts from north to south in the vicinity of the 200 m isobath:the biotrtass in the western part was greater than 50 mg/m³,whereas was less than 50 mg/m³ in the eastern part.The spetiotemporal distributions of different ecological groups of zooplankton and their biotrutss basically reflect the basic features of the hydrological conditions in each season in the study area.