Mesozooplankton abundance, biovolume, size and stoichiometry of the POLARSTERN (ANT-XXXIII/3) cruise PS112

• Main Authors: Plum, Christoph, Cornils, Astrid, Driscoll, Ryan, Wenta, Philipp, Badewien, Thomas H, Niggemann, Jutta, Moorthi, Stefanie
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2021
• Subjects: Population Shift and Ecosystem Response – Krill vs. Salps; POSER; size; Southern Ocean; stoichiometry; West Antarctic Peninsula; Zooplankton; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Atkinson; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Euphausia superba
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.937520; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.937520

Zooplankton samples were collected between 03/26/2018 and 04/27/2018 around the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (63° 0' 1.843'' S, 60° 0' 16.901''W) onboard the RV Polarstern during the PS112 campaign in order to identify spatial distribution in response to environmental variables (CTD raw data files from POLARSTERN cruise PS112, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.895969) and the abundance of krill (Euphausia superba) and salps (Salpa thompsoni). Samples were taken using a Bongo net with a mesh size of 150 µm. The net was equipped with a flowmeter (HydroBios) to measure the filtered volume. On board, the net sample was sieved over a 2000 µm mesh in order to separate organisms >2000 µm. The smaller fraction (150 – 2000 µm) was homogenized in 200 mL 0.2 µm filtered seawater and equally split into 4 x 50 mL by using a Hensen-Stempel pipette. The mesozooplankton size range of 150 – 2000 µm was defined according to Atkinson et al. (2012). Two parts were then filtered on 47 mm GF/C Whatman filters (precombusted, acidified and weighed) for analysis of dry weight (DW), bulk carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content, while the third part was preserved in 4 % formalin for abundance, biovolume and size structure analysis. The C/N filters were sealed in tin capsules and analyzed using a CHN analyzer (Thermo, Flash EA 1112). Prior to the analysis, filters for particulate phosphorus were combusted at 450 °C for 5 hours. Particulate organic phosphorus (POP) was measured photometrically as orthophosphate (PO4) by molybdate reaction after sulfuric acid and heat digestion at 90 °C, modified after (Grasshoff et al., 2009). Another filter containing the 4th part served as a back-up. Mesozooplankton bulk stoichiometry data are shown in dataset one. The zooplankton subsamples for taxonomic analysis were scanned using the ZooScan digital imaging system (Model Biotom, Hydroptic Inc., France), a water-proof scanner with a resolution of 2400 dpi (Gorsky et al., 2010; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbp124). Prior to scanning, the ...