Description: The results of an investigation of tintinnids from the western Arabian Sea are described. A total of 134 closing-net samples was obtained from 22 stations of the German "Meteor" expedition 1964/1965. Distribution charts of the dominant species of tintinnids from the study area are presented as well as a list of the world-wide distribution of these species as derived from the literature. Tintinnids were most abundant in the surface waters. The layer from O-25 m yielded a maximum of 94.3% and a minimum of 61.3% of the tintinnids present from O-175 m; the mean was 80%, There was no significant difference in the vertical distribution between day and night stations nor wasb there any indication of the influence of the thermocline upon vertical distribution of tintinnids. TS-diagrams show different water types in the western Arabian Sea. Temperatur-salinity-tintinniddiagrams indicate regional patterns in the distribution of various species of tintinnids. Some tintinnids can be used as indicator species: Climacorylis scalaria, Parundella lohmanni and Amphorella amphora were typical for the Somali Current whereas Rhabdonella apophysata and Brandtiella palliata indicated the presence of Bast African Coastal Current water. The concentration of tintinnids in the upper 25 m ranged between 4,800 and 39,300 individuals/m3 (mean 19,000/m3). Plasma volume of tintinnids was calculated to permit comparison of different links in the food chain. There was a mean of 51 mm3/m2 in the upper layer, equivalent to a concentration of 2 mm3/m3. Carbon values were computed from the plasma volume of tintinnids, phytoplankton and larger Zooplankton. The ratio of phytoplankton plus microzooplankton carbon to large zooplankton carbon was 1 : 0.8 in the Somali Current, 1 : 0.4 in the Bast African Coastal Current and 1 : 1.2 in the mixing zone of these current systems. Tintinnids are one of the first links in the food chain. It is very likely that a part of the organic detritus and of the nanoplankton is transfered to large herbivores or omnivores via tintinnids and other protozoans. This mechanism might be especially effective during seasons when large phytoplankters are not available in the ocean.

Description: A decade of particle flux measurements providse the basis for a comparison of the eastern and western province s of the Nordic Seas. Ice-related physical and biological seasonality as well as pelagic settings jointly control fluxes in the western Polar Province which receive s southward flowing water of Polar origin. Sediment trap data from this realm highlight a predominantly physical flux control which leads to exports of siliceous particle s within the biological marginal ice zone as a prominent contributor. In the northward flowing waters of the eastern Atlanti c Province, feeding strategies, life histories and the succession ofdominant mesozooplankters (copepods and pteropods) are central in controlling fluxes. Furthermore, more calcareous matter is exported here with a shift in flux seasonality towards summer I autumn. Dominant pelagic processes modeled numerically as to their impact on annual organic carbon exports for both provinces confirm that interannual flux variability is related to changes in the respecti ve control mechanisms. Annual organic carbon export s are strikingly similar in the Polar and Atlantic Province s (2.4 and 2.9 g/m**2/y at 500 m depth), despite major differences in flux control. The Polar and Atlantic Provinces, however, can be distinguished according to annual fluxes of opal (1.4 and 0.6 g/m**2/y) and carbonate (6.8 and 10.4 g/m**2/y). Interannual variability may blur this in single years. Thus, it is vital to use multi-annual data sets when including particle exports in general biogeochemical province descriptions. Vertical flux profiles (collections from 500 m, 1000 m in both provinces and 300-600 m above the seafloor deviate from the general vertical decline of fluxes due to particle degradation during sinking. At depths〉 1000 m secondary fluxes (laterally advectedlresuspended particles) are often juxtaposed to primary (pelagic) fluxes, a pattern which is most prominent in the Atlantic Province. Spatial variability within the Atlantic Province remains poorly understood, and the same holds true for interannual variability. No proxies are at hand for this province to quantitatively relate fluxes to physical or biological pelagic properties. For the seasonally ice-covered Polar Province a robust relationship exists between particle export and ambient ice-regime (Ramseier et al. this volume; Ramseier et al. 1999). Spatial flux patterns may be differentiated and interannual variability can be analyzed in this manner to impro ve our ability to couple pelagic export patterns with benthic and geochemical sedimentary processes in seasonally ice-covered seas.