Revision of Continuous Plankton Recorder from Mon, 2015-01-26 15:27
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Overview:
The Continous Plankton Recorder is a device developed by Sir Alister Hardy in 1931. Since then, his effort has been standardized and continued by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science. Research and merchant ships are equiped with a planton recording device that is towed near-surface for up to 300 nautical miles. During the traul, plankton is sieved out of the water and stored by a silk cloth that is then analysed for plankton biomass and species at SAHFOS. The plankton recorders are now widely availbale and in use providing an extremely large, and 'continuous' data set for the Atlantic Ocean.
Dataset Location: OBIS Mapper > EuroOBIS
Site Location: northern Atlantic Ocean
Site(s) Georeferenced: Yes
Timespan: 1946 - 2011
Sampling Frequency: Continuous towing data is summarized by month.
Data collection summary/Methods: Data is collected on a network of shipping routes from merchant or research vessels that tow a plankton sampling device about 10m in depth. The device includes a 270 micron mesh silk cloth that collects and stores plankton during a 10 - 500 nautical mile tow. The silk is then removed from the towing device and sent to the laboratory. At the lab, the silk is cut into 'blocks' that represent 10 nauthical miles of towing. Each block is then analysed for 'green-ness', 'plankton field analysis', 'zooplankton transverse analysis', and 'zooplankton eye count analysis'. For more information see: http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/about-us/cpr-survey/the-cpr-survey.aspx
'Green-ness' is a value determined by comparing the silk to a color chart (0, no green; 1, very pale green; 2, pale green; 6.5, green).
'Plankton Field Analysis' is the identification and count of phytoplankton under high power magnification for 0.001 of the silk block.
'Zooplankton Transverse Analysis' is the identification and count of zooplankton at low magnification for 0.02 of the silk block.
'Zooplankton Eye Count Analysis' is the identification and count of zooplankton > 2mm for the whole silk block.
Data collected: silk green-ness, species id, species count, location
Known Issues: weaknesses, limitations, errors, caveats, etc.
Best Practices: tips for separating the wheat from the chaff
Conditions for use:
Citation/ Distributing Author:
Supplemental resources: papers that use the data, etc.
Available via the EcoData Retriever: Yes or No