Studies on Atlantic halocyprid ostracods: vertical distributions of the species in the top 1000 m in the vicinity of 44°N, 13°W

Extract

‘During the month of July 1900 the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty consented, at the request of the Council of the Royal Society, to place H.M.S. “Research” at my disposal for an investigation of the plankton of the Bay of Biscay’ (Fowler, 1904). The area of study was 78 x 20 nautical miles and bounded by the latitudes 46° 43' N and 47° 29' N and longitudes 7° 15' W and 8° 18' W. Fowler (1909) subsequently worked up the halocyprid Ostracoda from tow-net samples taken either with a 20 in (45 cm) diameter net with either 45 or 60 mesh (i.e. pore apertures of about 0.50 or 0.35 mm), or a mesoplankton-net that could be opened and closed. The nets were lowered to depth and left dangling while the ship drifted. This was the first attempt to study the vertical distribution of halocyprid ostracods, and the only study considering this planktonic group in the Bay of Biscay for another 74 years, apart from Colman (1962), who identified the contents of his plankton samples only to Order. Fowler's results were dogged by his taxonomic misconceptions (Skogsberg, 1920). He believed that many of the larger species were later moult stages of smaller ones, e.g. he synonymized C. macrocheira Müller with C. magna Claus. Fortunately he illustrated most of the forms he was dealing with and it has been possible to re-ascribe them with reasonable confidence.