IMOS - AusCPR: Zooplankton Abundance

• Other Authors: CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere (isManagedBy)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Atlas of Living Australia
• Subjects: Antarctic; Queensland; Antarc*; Australian Antarctic Division
• Online Access: https://researchdata.edu.au/imos-auscpr-zooplankton-abundance/1331117

AusCPR: Zooplankton Abundance The Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder (AusCPR) survey is a joint project of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) to measure plankton communities as a guide to the health of Australia's oceans. The zooplankton analysis is conducted differently to that described in Richardson et al 2006 as it is counted off the silk in a bogorov tray. This is accomplished by rinsing the silks in water and straining through a 10 micron mesh sieve. The collected plankton is transferred to a bogorov tray and counted under a disecting scope. This is done to retain the phytoplankton. After counting the zooplankton and phytoplankton are stored with the silk segment in PGP preservative. AusCPR decided to analyse the zooplankton this way as it provides a more accurate analysis of the zooplankton present. It is easy to miss zooplankton when it is still on the silk and it is harder to identify. The aims of the AusCPR survey are to: * map plankton biodiversity and distribution * develop the first long-term plankton baseline for Australian waters * document plankton changes in response to climate change * provide indices for fisheries management * detect harmful algal blooms * validate satellite remote sensing * initialise and test ecosystem models Servicing and maintenance of the CPRs and analysis of the samples for the AusCPR survey will be carried out by staff based at the CMAR laboratories in Queensland and at the AAD in Hobart. The project was funded by the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and falls with the Ships of Opportunity facility. Data storage and access is planned to be interoperable with other national and international programs through the IMOS eMarine Information Infrastructure (eMII). Results from the AusCPR survey are available through the IMOS data portal: http://imos.aodn.org.au/webportal/ For information on using the data please refer to the Richardson et al. 2006. As the taxonomic resolution of the data has changed over ...