PACE Validation BATS Plankton: Abundance and Taxonomy from Imaging

Data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Site provides abundance and taxonomic information for the 5-300 µm planktonic community. It combines imaging from FlowCam and Zooscan instruments with pigment analysis from water samples at target depths from the surface to 200 meters. The dataset includes images captured at multiple magnifications and size fractions to enumerate both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived phytoplankton functional types based on in-situ taxonomic and pigment data.
• Analyzing plankton community composition and size structure across different ocean depths.
• Studying temporal changes in marine ecosystems using long-term time-series observations.
• Calibrating imaging flow cytometry (FlowCam) and zooplankton scanner (Zooscan) methodologies for plankton enumeration.

Strengths

• Includes data from a well-established, long-term oceanographic time-series site (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series).
• Combines multiple measurement techniques: imaging flow cytometry, zooplankton scanning, and high-performance liquid chromatography for pigments.
• Specifies target sampling depths (surface, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200 m) and organism size range (5-300 µm).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, specific column names, and data volume are unknown across all sources.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details, and one source lists no license.
• Data freshness is uncertain; the last update date (2026-04-09) appears to be a future placeholder, suggesting metadata may not be actively maintained.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Plankton samples collected via Niskin bottle casts and net tows (0-175 m), imaged using FlowCam and Zooscan, with duplicate samples analyzed for pigments via HPLC at GSFC.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:35:41.819152

Geography

Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Site