Australian Zooplankton Abundance from Continuous Plankton Recorder Surveys

A collection of zooplankton abundance data from the Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder (AusCPR) survey, a joint project of CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division. It is designed for time series analysis, with data binned into products where a 0 abundance indicates a species was looked for but not seen, and -999 indicates it was not looked for in that sample.

Use Cases

• Analyze time series of zooplankton abundance to document changes in response to climate change.
• Map zooplankton biodiversity and distribution across Australian waters using binned abundance products.
• Develop plankton baselines for fisheries management indices using species-specific absence/presence codes (0 and -999).
• Validate satellite remote sensing data by correlating with in-situ zooplankton abundance measurements.

Strengths

• Data is structured for time series analysis with specific codes (0, -999) distinguishing real absences from unsearched taxa.
• Project is a long-term baseline effort involving major research institutions (CSIRO, Australian Antarctic Division).
• Data is made interoperable through the IMOS Infrastructure and the AODN portal.

Limitations

• Sample analysis methodology differs from the standard Richardson et al. 2006 protocol, requiring careful comparison.
• Taxonomic identifications and the number of species counted may change over time due to analyst training and taxonomy updates.
• Specific data volume (row count, file size) and column structure are not provided in the input.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Plankton collected by Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR), with zooplankton counted off the silk in a Bogorov tray under a dissecting scope to improve accuracy.

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-03-21, suggesting active maintenance.

Geography

Australian waters, including the Tasman Sea, Coral Sea, Great Australian Bight, Bass Strait, and surrounding Indian and Pacific Oceans.