A global diatom database - abundance, biovolume and biomass in the world ocean

• Main Authors: Leblanc, K., Arístegui, J., Armand, L., Assmy, P., Beker, B., Bode, A., Breton, Elsa, Cornet, V., Gibson, J., Gosselin, M. P., Kopczynska, E., Marshall, H., Peloquin, J., Piontkovski, S., Poulton, A. J., QUEGUINER, Bernard, Schiebel, R., Shipe, R., Stefels, J., Van Leeuwe, M. A., Varela, M., Widdicombe, C., Yallop, M.
• Other Authors: Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie (MIO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Toulon (UTLN), Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global (IOCAG), Université de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Espagne (ULPGC), Macquarie University, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin (LEMAR) (LEMAR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187 (LOG), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Bio-Indicateurs Actuels et Fossiles (BIAF), Université d'Angers (UA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Arctic; Indian; Pacific; Southern Ocean; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00761329; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00761329/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00761329/file/essd-4-149-2012.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/essdd-5-147-2012

International audience Phytoplankton identification and abundance data are now commonly feeding plankton distribution databases worldwide. This study is a first attempt to compile the largest possible body of data available from different databases as well as from individual published or unpublished datasets regarding diatom distribution in the world ocean. The data obtained originate from time series studies as well as spatial studies. This effort is supported by the Marine Ecosystem Model Inter-Comparison Project (MAREMIP), which aims at building consistent datasets for the main Plankton Functional Types (PFT) in order to help validate biogeochemical ocean models by using carbon (C) biomass derived from abundance data. In this study we collected over 293 000 individual geo-referenced data points with diatom abundances from bottle and net sampling. Sampling site distribution was not homogeneous, with 58% of data in the Atlantic, 20% in the Arctic, 12% in the Pacific, 8% in the Indian and 1% in the Southern Ocean. A total of 136 different genera and 607 different species were identified after spell checking and name correction. Only a small fraction of these data were also documented for biovolumes and an even smaller fraction was converted to C biomass. As it is virtually impossible to reconstruct everyone's method for biovolume calculation, which is usually not indicated in the datasets, we decided to undertake the effort to document, for every distinct species, the minimum and maximum cell dimensions, and to convert all the available abundance data into biovolumes and C biomass using a single standardized method. Statistical correction of the database was also adopted to exclude potential outliers and suspicious data points. The final database contains 90 648 data points with converted C biomass. Diatom C biomass calculated from cell sizes spans over eight orders of magnitude. The mean diatom biomass for individual locations, dates and depths is 141.19 μg C l−1, while the median value is 11.16 μg C l−1. ...