Annual Zooplankton Succession in Coastal NW Mediterranean Waters: The Importance of the Smaller Size Fractions

Coastal marine areas are of great ecological, economic and social interest. They are highly variable systems, where changes in the water circulation patterns, and fluctuations of land influences (e.g. rivers, sewage flow) induce high temporal variability on scales ranging from hours to seasons This variability may be reflected in the dynamics of the populations, particularly planktonic ones, thriving in coastal systems. Such variability may hide the underlying seasonal patterns of organism abundance and biomass.