Seasonal Zooplankton Biomass Climatologies for the British Columbia EEZ (1990-2019)

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides seasonal climatologies for Zooplankton biomass in seven size categories. The data covers the period 1990-2019 for the Canadian Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone, with a high spatial resolution of 1/300 degree. It was generated using Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) on a subset of the Institute of Ocean Sciences Zooplankton Database.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal plankton dynamics based on seven biomass size categories.
• Analyzing spatial patterns in marine biomass based on high-resolution (1/300 degree) raster layers.
• Studying long-term climatological trends in coastal ecosystems based on 30 years of data (1990-2019).
• Assessing interpolation uncertainty in marine data based on the described DIVA method and masked nearshore areas.

Strengths

• Covers a 30-year time period (1990-2019).
• Provides high spatial resolution of 1/300 degree.
• Includes data for seven distinct zooplankton size categories.
• Seasonal averages are calculated from yearly seasonal means for spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Limitations

• The dataset is described as incomplete and regularly updated, indicating it is a work in progress.
• Uncertainties are introduced by spatial interpolation, with noted poor performance in inlets and nearshore areas.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Institute of Ocean Sciences Zooplankton Database.

Collection Method

Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) used for spatial interpolation; seasonal averages computed as the mean of yearly seasonal means.

Time Range

1990-2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 08:36:34.152169; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canadian Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), specifically the British Columbia EEZ.