Composition of a deep scattering layer overlying a mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal plume

Three sets of zooplankton trawls with multiple nets were deployed in June 1990 within a deep (2000 m) scattering layer overlying the central hydrothermal vent field on the Endeavour segment of Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific. Trawl data were collected concurrently with temperature, salinity, light attenuation and acoustic (150 kHz) backscatter profiles. We describe the composition, size distribution and biomass of zooplankton collected in the net samples, and compare biomass distributions with physical characteristics of the hydrothermal plume. The nine discrete trawl samples (1 mm mesh) contained zooplankton biomass of between 0.3 and 21 mg dry wt m^-3 with the highest biomass samples coincident with large and positive (+20 dB) acoustic backscatter anomalies observed above the top of the hydrothermal plume. Lowest biomass samples were coincident with small, negative (-5 dB) backscatter anomalies within the core of the plume. Results suggest that the region within a hundred meters of the top of the plume was a zone of enhanced zooplankton concentration associated with nutrition enrichment related to the plume. In contrast, the plume core was a zone of faunal depletion, presumably linked to adverse plume chemistry. The species composition and size distribution profiles from net samples revealed that the epi-plume assemblage contained several trophic levels of bathypelagic fauna, but did not contain benthic larvae or vent-related benthopelagic fauna.