Planktonic Copepod Community Structure in Summer, North West Cape, Western Australia

The austral summers of 1997/1998 and 1998/1999 provide the temporal coverage for this dataset on pelagic copepod community composition near Australia's North West Cape. Over 120 species of copepods were identified from samples taken at 8 stations along a 36km cross-shelf transect. Data includes species abundances, biomass, and environmental variables like temperature, salinity, and nutrient levels, collected by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Analyze copepod community composition and species richness based on the identified over 120 species across 8 sampling stations.
• Model the relationship between zooplankton abundance/biomass and environmental variables like water temperature, salinity, and dissolved nutrients mentioned in the description.
• Compare pelagic copepod community structure before and after a cyclone event based on the sampling period that included Cyclone Tiffany.
• Study cross-shelf gradients in marine biodiversity based on data from a 36km transect with 4 inshore and 4 offshore stations.

Strengths

• Includes data from a specific 36km cross-shelf transect with 8 stations (4 inshore, 4 offshore).
• Identifies over 120 copepod species, with detailed family-level breakdowns provided.
• Contains complementary environmental measurements including water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a, and dissolved nutrients.
• Captures a natural disturbance event with sampling before and after Cyclone Tiffany in early 1998.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified; the last update timestamp is 2026-06-17 02:10:25.169412.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Field sampling from a set of 8 stations along a cross-shelf transect.

Time Range

austral summers of 1997/1998 and 1998/1999

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-17 02:10:25.169412; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North West Cape, Western Australia