North Atlantic continuous plankton recorder survey 1960-2007

• Main Authors: McQuatters-Gollop, Abigail, Burkill, Peter, Beaugrand, Gregory, Edwards, Martin, Gattuso, Jean-Pierre, Johns, David
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2010
• Subjects: Bivalvia sp.; larvae; Clione limacina; Coccolithophoridae sp.; Date/time end; Date/time start; Echinodermata; EPOCA; European Project on Ocean Acidification; Foraminifera; planktic; LATITUDE; Limacina retroversa; LONGITUDE; Microscopy; North Atlantic; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.744737; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.744737

The database collected using the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) operated by SAHFOS covers a long time span (surveys are on-going since 1946) and the whole North Atlantic, including the North Sea. It is therefore a unique tool to investigate changes in the planktonic community composition. Key publications have documented, for example, changes in zooplankton and chlorophyll abundance over the past decades. However, the data on calcareous plankton archived in the CPR database have not yet been exploited. The publication of the "Atlas of Calcifying Plankton" by SAHFOS and EPOCA begins to fill this gap and is therefore most timely. I am convinced that the scientific community will use this short preliminary description of the data available to investigate the drivers of the changes (or lack of thereof) reported in the Atlas.