Abstract
To understand the pelagic community of zooplankton near the offshore island, an investigation was conducted on Sado Island, in the Sea of Japan with two commonly used plankton nets (mesh size: 100 and 335 μm). Zooplankton were surveyed from the sea surface at two offshore sampling stations using a research vessel in late spring 2023. The zooplankton community comprised 34 morphologically distinguished operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Zooplankton collected from the two sampling stations contained mainly copepods, radiolarians, cladocerans, larvaceans, and crustacean nauplii. Some meroplankton were observed only at the station closer to shore, whereas many others were observed at both stations. Large zooplankton, such as calanoid and cyclopoid copepods, chaetognaths, meroplanktonic fish larvae and radiolarians were collected with the larger-mesh plankton net whereas small zooplankton, such as harpacticoid copepods, cyclopoid nauplii and molluscans were collected with the smaller-mesh plankton net. This study describes the zooplankton community near Sado Island, and it will be useful for understanding and predicting changes in plankton distribution in the Sea of Japan.
https://ror.org/04ww21r56 
