the net during each haul, and a pressure sensor recorded the depth in
real-time. The multiple open/closing system enabled the collection of
stratified zooplankton samples in a single deployment. Three depth
layers were sampled: from 200 to 75 m (or 10 m from the bottom in
the shallower stations), 75 to 25 m and 25 m to the sea surface. Net
sets with the two mesh sizes sampled each strata, so two samples per
depth layer were recovered. We used the 100 μmmesh size for the zooplankton
fractions below500 μm, and the 500 μmmesh size for the larger
ones. This approach ensured a quantitative sampling for size fractions
below 10 mm.