Coastal Zooplankton Abundance and Carbon Biomass from Optical Plankton Counter Tows

Optical Plankton Counter data provides counts and size estimates of zooplankton-sized particles, including abundance, total carbon biomass, and biomass per size class. Measurements were collected along standard ship sections off Oregon and Northern California during four cruises in 2000 and 2002. The dataset was produced by the SCIOPS organization.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal and depth-based trends in zooplankton abundance and carbon biomass across the 2000 and 2002 sampling years.
• Model relationships between particulate size classes and estimated carbon biomass per size class.
• Map the spatial distribution of zooplankton along the Newport, Oregon to Crescent, California ship track sections.
• Correlate OPC-derived particle counts with environmental data from the same ship cruises to study habitat drivers.

Strengths

• Data collected during four dedicated research cruises across two years (2000, 2002).
• Provides multiple derived metrics: particle abundance, total carbon biomass, and carbon biomass per size class.
• High temporal resolution with several time intervals reported per minute along the tow path.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to four ship cruises over two years, restricting long-term trend analysis.
• Spatial coverage is constrained to specific standard sections off Oregon and Northern California.
• Not all sections were surveyed equally in time and space, introducing potential sampling bias.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS organization, accessed via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Data gathered by an Optical Plankton Counter towed from ships using the OSU SeaSoar system.

Time Range

2000-05-28 to 2002-08-19

Freshness

Data collection ended in August 2002; the dataset is historical.

Geography

Coastal region from Newport, Oregon to Crescent, California, USA.