adaptation to the scarce food resources of these zones. The animals 

 which make them up have characteristically adapted to reduced energy 

 expenditures, manifested as a transition to a passive mode of life. For 

 this reason, there are no nektonic animals in the bathypelagic or, par- 

 ticularly, the abyssopelagic zone, and even the largest inhabitants of 

 these biotopes--and some fish (the angler fishes Himantolophus and Ceratias ) 

 and squids ( Mesonychoteuthis ) reach a meter or more in length--must be 

 considered macroplankton. 



The primary trophic complexes of the macroplanktonic and nektonic 

 animals in the pelagic zone of the ocean, though they are clearly separated, 

 are still interconnected to some extent and form only individual sections 

 of the single trophic network. The "contact" is particularly clearly seen 

 in the complex at the upper boundary of the primary thermocline, where 

 elements of the epipelagic and mesopelagic complexes come in contact and 

 conditions are created for a significant concentration of food resources 

 for the large nektonic predators. 



48 



