MOCNESS

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MOCNESS is the acronym for Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sampling System and is a net system for plankton in the ocean. The system is towed behind a research vessel with a speed of 1.5 knots and consists of five to twenty nets with a mesh size from 64 µm to 3 mm and an area of 1 to 10 sqm which are opened and closed computer controlled at desired depth. The net enables biologists to catch zooplankton and nekton in various depth horizons mostly of the upper 100 m of the oceans. The system may include a CTD-probe to measure salinity and temperature at sampling depth.

[edit] Reference

P. H. Wiebe et al., 1985, New development in the MOCNESS, an apparatus for sampling zooplankton and micronekton, Marine Biology, 87(3), 313-323, doi:10.1007/BF00397811