IMOS AusCPR: Phytoplankton Abundance for Australian Waters

AusCPR survey data measures plankton communities as a guide to ocean health, with samples analyzed in situ on a mesh to avoid cell loss. The project, a joint effort by CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division funded by IMOS, aims to establish a long-term plankton baseline and document changes in response to climate change. Five binned data products are available, with zero values indicating a species was looked for and not seen, making the data applicable for time series analysis.

Use Cases

• Modeling plankton biodiversity and distribution changes over time based on the long-term baseline mentioned in the description.
• Developing indices for fisheries management based on plankton community data.
• Detecting and tracking harmful algal blooms based on phytoplankton abundance records.
• Validating satellite remote sensing data for ocean color and productivity based on in-situ plankton counts.
• Initializing and testing marine ecosystem models based on the binned taxonomic group products.

Strengths

• Data is structured for time series analysis with explicit codes for real absences (0) and unsearched species (-999).
• Project involves multiple authoritative institutions: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere and the Australian Antarctic Division.
• Five distinct data products are offered, allowing analysis at raw, species, genus, functional group, or derived index levels.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Taxonomic identification ability improved over time, which may introduce a non-stationary bias in the time series.

Provenance

Source

Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Ships of Opportunity facility, via the Australian Ocean Data Network portal.

Collection Method

Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey, with phytoplankton counted in situ on silk mesh, analyzed per Richardson et al. 2006 methodology.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 21:40:04.114374; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian waters