Continous Plankton Recorder phytoplankton and zooplankton occurrence and count data from The CPR Survey in the North Atlantic Ocean from 2014 to 2019 (NCEI Accession 0277866)

This dataset contains biological data collected on MBA (SAHFOS) during cruise CPR_1946-2019 in the Davis Strait, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador Sea, New York Bight, and North Atlantic Ocean from 2014-01-12 to 2019-01-02. These data include taxon and taxon_code. The instruments used to collect these data include Continous Plankton Recorder. These data were collected by Dr David Johns of The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom and Peter H. Wiebe of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as part of the "The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey: Monitoring the Plankton of the North Atlantic (CPR Plankton Survey)" project. The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) submitted these data to NCEI on 2020-06-04.

The following is the text of the dataset description provided by BCO-DMO:

Continous Plankton Recorder zooplankton and phytoplankton counts Atlantic 2014-2019

Dataset Description:
This dataset includes phytoplankton and zooplankton found in Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) tows from 2014 to 2019 in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Over the last 82 years, the CPR Survey analysis team has analyzed more than a quarter of a million samples from over 6.5 million miles of tows in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, North and South Atlantic, North Pacific, and Indian Oceans. In 2015 (to mid-December), approx. 124,600 nautical miles were sampled with over 4000 samples for analysis. Samples have been taken in the North Atlantic and North Sea, Pacific, and Southern Ocean.

Spatial and temporal data are stored at the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA) for every sample analyzed by the CPR Survey, since 1946. This amounts to almost 170,000 samples, with around 200 more samples added per month. The presence of every planktonic entity identified on each sample is stored in the database, and there are almost 2 million plankton records in total. The database also contains supportive information such as tow locations, times and dates, ship details, a taxon catalog and analyst details.

Over 400 zooplankton and phytoplankton entities have been identified on CPR samples, and the 'abundance' of each entity on each sample can be extracted from the database. Some plankton are identified to species level, some to genus level, and some at a higher taxonomic level. Some entities are groups of other entities. The complete Species List is kept in the database.

Data can be extracted from user-defined areas, over specified periods, for selected entities [from the 'The CPR Survey' site]. For example, all samples taken from the Dogger Bank area in the North Sea during March, April, and May since 1946 could be extracted from the database, and the 'abundance' of selected diatom species on each sample could be listed. Alternatively, an average value, number of samples, and standard deviation per year per month could be retrieved. The data can be exported to statistical and presentation packages in many popular formats such as text, rich text, comma-separated, MS Excel, MS Access, MS Word, Fox Pro, Dbase, Lotus, and to SQL compliant databases. The CPR Survey can supply some descriptive data at little cost (usually free).

If you would like to know more about CPR coverage of a particular location, contact David Johns at The CPR Survey.

For information about methods and parameters, and link to The CPR Survey data page: https://www.cprsurvey.org/data/our-data/
The Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) merged with the MBA.