О суточных вертикальных миграциях некоторых бокоплавов в Черном и Азовском морях

Abstract

Among amphipods of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov three species, Dexamine spinosa, Nototropis guttatus and Gammarus locusta, definitely make vertical daily migration. According to our study, it is not a feeding migration, though migrating amphipods prey, to a certain extent, on typically planktonic organisms. Moreover, small number of egg-bearing females, prevalence of either male or female fraction and occurrence of juveniles in the migrating amphipod swarm exclude a suggestion that migration is directly related with reproduction. Most probable, further research using ecologo-physiological approach can clarify causes/triggering factors and the biological aim of amphipod migrations.