Three Distinct Views of Deep Pelagic Community Composition Based on Complementary Sampling Approaches

Our perception of deep-sea communities has evolved as various sampling approaches have captured different components habitats. We sampled midwater zooplankton assemblages in Monterey Bay, California to quantify community composition (abundance and biomass) biodiversity (at the Order level) across three depth ranges, effects methodology on parameters. collected using two types opening-closing trawls [Tucker Trawl Multiple Opening/Closing Net Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS)] video recordings from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). quantified relative contributions microbes biomass synoptic water-bottle casts flow cytometry. Overall, pelagic was most similar between Tucker trawl ROV (dissimilarity = 52.4%) least MOCNESS 65.8%). Dissimilarity methods driven by abundances crustaceans gelatinous taxa, where animals (cnidarians, ctenophores, tunicates) were more abundant surveys (64.2%) (46.8%) compared samples (14.5%). only method that sufficiently documented physically delicate taxa (e.g., physonect siphonophores, lobate larvaceans). Biomass also one order magnitude lower trawls. Due these large differences, total substantially (mean 7.5%) 51%). These results illustrate our view planktonic is strongly dependent methodology.