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spreading out towards the west, after crossing the Sicily Channel. The topographic
constrains lead LIW flow to turn eastwards and enter the Tyrrhenian Sea across a
section offshore the Egadi Islands. Here, the eastern outflow is composed by a unique
vein constituted by an upper part, between 300 and 650 m depth, and a lower part down
to 1100m depth flowing very close to Sicily slope (Sparnocchia et al., 1999).

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Within the framework of FIRB-BIODIVERSITY Project, “Characterization of

pelagic environment of hydrographical area of Egadi Islands”, an oceanographic cruise
was carried out in October 2004. 87 samples were collected at 12 stations, located along
inshore-offshore transects parallel to Sicily coastline between Marettimo, Favignana and
Levanzo Islands (Fig. 1). Zooplankton samplings were carried out using the electronic
multiple net BIONESS. The BIONESS (0.25 m2 mouth area and max. 10 nets of 200
μm mesh size) was towed obliquely at a speed of 1-1.5 m s-1. Depending on the bottom
depth, samples were collected every 5-10 m intervals of the water column in the
shallower levels and every 50-100 m in the deeper ones. Sampling was performed in
daylight hours. BIONESS was equipped with a multi-parameter probe system in order
to measure physico-chemical and biological parameters (temperature, salinity, dissolved
oxygen and fluorescence).

Fig. 1 - Study area in the Egadi Islands Archipelago and locations of 12 stations.

On board, the samples were fixed and preserved in a 4% buffered formaldehyde
sea water solution. In laboratory, a qualitative-quantitative analysis of meso-

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