ZooBase: Global Marine Zooplankton Species Occurrence Records

A global dataset of marine zooplankton species occurrences compiled from multiple sources. The data was assembled by researchers at ETH Zurich, integrating records from OBIS, GBIF, and specific scientific initiatives. Records were filtered for quality, requiring complete spatial coordinates, sampling dates after 1800, and species-level identification.

Use Cases

• Modeling global zooplankton species distributions based on occurrence records.
• Analyzing biodiversity patterns for specific taxonomic groups like copepods or pteropods mentioned in the description.
• Studying the spatial overlap of species observations between major databases like OBIS and GBIF.
• Investigating the biogeography of holoplanktonic marine invertebrates such as salps, krill, and jellyfish.

Strengths

• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including OBIS, GBIF, and dedicated scientific initiatives.
• Applies specific quality filters, such as removing records with missing coordinates or dates before 1800.
• Focuses on key zooplankton groups identified as comprising the bulk of extant oceanic communities.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Compiled from OBIS, GBIF, Cornils et al. (2018), and the MAREDAT initiative.

Collection Method

Data retrieved via R packages (RPostgreSQL, robis, rgbif) between 12/04/2018 and 18/04/2018, followed by quality filtering and integration.

Time Range

Records collected after the year 1800.

Geography

Global marine coverage.