determination Table 11. Mean values of biomass of bacteria and meiobenthos 

 (g/nr, wet mass) bottom sediments of various trophic zones of the Pacific 

 Ocean (Sorokin, 1970d; Sokolova, 1972). 



Type of Sediment Bacteria Meiobenthos 



Detrital sediments of littoral zone 

 Sediments of eutrophic shelf 

 Sediments of mesotrophic slope 

 Deep-water sediments of oligotrophic zone 



of the production and biomass of the main components of the community. 

 Work of this sort was performed during biologic voyages of the VITAYAZ' and 

 AKADEMIK KURCHATOV (Vinogradov, 1971). An example of one of the diagrams 

 of flows of energy in ecosystems of the pelagic zone is shown in Fig. 22. 

 The diagram characterizes the participation of microflora in the 

 transformation of energy in the ecosystem of the pelagic zone of the Sea of 

 Japan in the summer (Sorokin, 1974). In the summer, after the heating of 

 the water and formation of the thermocline, nutrients in the upper, mixed 

 layer, 20-30 m thick, are rapidly consumed by phytoplankton, the main 

 portion of which dies, and only a small fraction is retained, vegetating at 

 the upper boundary of the thermocline in the layer of the primary maximum 

 at a depth of 25-35 m. Most of the biomass of plankters consists during 

 this period of heterotrophic bacteria and Protozoa, which represent about 

 2/3 of the metabolism and energy flow in the ecosystem. The energy of 

 primary production here satisfied only 40% of the energy requirements of 

 the heterotrophs. The remaining energy arrives from the stored energy of 

 organic matter, created during the winter and spring bloom of the 

 phytoplankton, which occurs during a period of low temperatures, when the 

 metabolism of the heterotrophic forms is low. The energy of this organic 

 matter is expended during the heterotrophic phase of the seasonal 

 succession of the plankton community. About 70% of the respiration of all 

 the plankton community is accounted for by bacterioplankton, about 15% by 

 Protozoa: the ciliates, tintinnids, and colorless flagellates, which 

 develop massively during this period in the layer of the main maximum and 

 represent the primary food base of the copepods. 



Thus, the basic trophic function of the microflora of the temperate 

 waters consists in the transformation of the excess organic matter 

 accumulated during the period of the bloom into microbial biomass, which, 

 directly or via the Protozoa, as an intermediate linkage serves as an 

 additional food source for the zooplankton during the summer period of low 

 phytoplankton production. 



In the productive region of the equatorial divergence, the bacterial 

 population represents 70% of the metabolism of the heterotrophic portion of 

 the community (see Table 4). The heterotrophic community is incapable of 

 consuming and converting the mass of primary production created. The 

 excess organic matter is carried by flows in the form of detritus and 

 dissolved organic matter into the poorer regions of the ocean, where it is 



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