there are some other factors (e.g., food concentration, abundance of
predators, thermal or saline barriers) involved in its regulation (Hays,
2003; Pearre, 2003). The response to the different factors varies
among taxa, which brings about a wide spectrum, both in the spatial
and the temporal ranges, of DVM behavior within the zooplanktonic
community (Irigoien et al., 2004). As a consequence, the total amount
of migrant biomass (and therefore of material exported downward
through DVM) is largely influenced by the taxonomic composition of
the zooplanktonic assemblage.