posreport1

A total of eight plankton hauls with the MOCNESS were performed on top of the seamount, at
the southern and northern flank and at an oceanic far field station outside the influence of the
seamount, reaching to a maximum depth of 1000 metres. The MOCNESS is a multiple plankton
net with a total of 6-20 nets which can be opened and closed sequentially at different depths. A
first impression of the samples indicates differences between the plankton community on top of
the seamount and at the flanks, with much lower total abundance above the summit where the
plankton community consisted mainly of small copepods. At the flank stations, very high abun-
dances of small fish and crustaceans were observed at a depth of ca 600 m. Additionally, a
multinet with five nets was used to study the fine-scale vertical distribution of plankton above
the summit of the seamount.