Six research cruises from October 1994 to January 1996 collected vertical profiles of microplankton, nanoplankton, and picoplankton in the Arabian Sea. The dataset includes measurements of abundance, biomass, biovolume, and zooplankton grazing rates for various plankton taxa. It was produced by principal investigators David Caron, Lisa Campbell, Michael Landry, and Robert Olson as part of the U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Arabian Sea Process Study.
Use Cases
- Modeling carbon biomass from microplankton biovolume measurements for major taxa like diatoms and dinoflagellates.
- Analyzing seasonal variation in phototrophic and heterotrophic nanoplankton abundance across monsoon cycles.
- Estimating phytoplankton growth rates using profiles of microzooplankton grazing per day.
- Correlating picoplankton abundance measurements from multiple cruises with environmental depth profiles.
Strengths
- Data spans 16 months, covering seasonal monsoon and inter-monsoon cycles.
- Includes measurements for three plankton size classes (micro, nano, pico) across six cruises.
- Provides carbon biomass estimates derived from biovolume calculations for specific taxa.
Limitations
- Measurements are limited to six of the eleven total cruises conducted.
- Data is from a specific region southeast of Oman, limiting geographic generalizability.
- Last updated in January 1996, representing a historical snapshot.
Provenance
- Source
- U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Arabian Sea Process Study, organized by SCIOPS.
- Collection Method
- Measurements made on preserved water samples collected at various depths using a rosette bottle sampler aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson.
- Time Range
- October 1994 to January 1996.
- Freshness
- Historical dataset; last updated 1996-01-31.
- Geography
- Arabian Sea, southeast of Oman.