North Atlantic Zooplankton Trophic Interactions from Stable Isotope Analysis

SCIOPS collected natural abundance isotope ratio (NAIR) signatures for zooplankton food chain components during Phase 2 Marine Productivity cruises in the North Atlantic. The dataset enables detection of trophic shifts for individual species across geographic and temporal transects and diet differences between species in the same water column. The approach is described as core to testing MarProd hypotheses concerning zooplankton trophic activity.

Use Cases

• Modeling trophic level shifts for individual species based on isotope signatures across geographic transects.
• Comparing dietary differences between cohabiting zooplankton species based on stable isotope data.
• Developing corrective algorithms for interpreting stable isotope signatures in preserved zooplankton samples.
• Analyzing temporal changes in zooplankton diet between research cruises using the described method.

Strengths

• Data is tied to specific research hypotheses (MarProd) concerning zooplankton trophic activity.
• The methodology is described as the only one covering meaningful periods of time between cruises.
• Dataset is designed to enable future interpretation of Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) records.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count, file formats, and sample data are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS via NASA Earthdata

Collection Method

Natural abundance isotope ratio (NAIR) analysis of zooplankton samples collected during Phase 2 Marine Productivity cruises.

Time Range

Temporal transects during the Phase 2 cruises (specific dates unknown).

Freshness

Last update date is unknown.

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean.