IMOS Zooplankton Biomass from Nine Australian Coastal Stations

Nine Australian coastal stations provide regular monthly zooplankton biomass samples, with Esperance and Ningaloo sampled every three months. The Plankton Ecology Lab analyzes these samples for community composition, dry weight biomass, and size spectrum. Data is managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and is interoperable with other national and international programs.

Use Cases

• Tracking changes in marine zooplankton biomass over time based on monthly sampling.
• Analyzing zooplankton community composition shifts around the Australian coastline.
• Correlating size spectrum data with environmental variables from the reference stations.

Strengths

• Samples collected monthly at nine stations, providing regular time-series data.
• Standardized sampling method using a drop net with a 1 m/s fall rate.
• Data is interoperable with other national and international marine programs.

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.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Samples collected via drop net from small vessels at nine National Reference Stations.

Time Range

Port Hacking 4 samples from 2002 to January 2009; other stations' time ranges are unspecified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 10:13:42.591135; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nine stations around the Australian coastline.