IMOS National Reference Station Zooplankton Biomass from Nine Australian Coastal Sites

Nine stations around the Australian coastline provide monthly zooplankton biomass samples, with three samples taken each month. The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) program collects this data, which includes community composition, dry weight biomass, and size spectrum analysis. Data storage is planned to be interoperable with other national and international programs through the IMOS infrastructure.

Use Cases

• Modeling zooplankton biomass trends based on monthly sampling at nine reference stations.
• Analyzing marine ecosystem health based on community composition (taxon per cubic meter) data.
• Conducting time-series analysis of coastal plankton populations based on regular monthly sampling.
• Supporting molecular analysis of marine samples based on unfixed, frozen sample protocols.

Strengths

• Samples are collected monthly at nine stations around the Australian coastline.
• Three zooplankton samples are taken each month, with two fixed for biomass analysis and one frozen for future molecular work.
• Sampling uses a standardized drop net design with a 60 cm diameter and 100 micron mesh.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset has been superseded by a newer collection, which may affect its current utility.

Provenance

Source

Integrated Marine Observing Systems (IMOS) National Mooring Network, Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Monthly sampling using a weighted drop net at nine National Reference Stations, with samples analyzed for composition, biomass, and size spectrum.

Time Range

Time series includes Port Hacking samples from 2002 to January 2009; ongoing monthly sampling.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 23:59:45.977990; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nine stations located around the Australian coastline.