Arctic Ocean Copepod Counts from 1952-1968 Ice Stations

Copepod species counts were collected from plankton tows at drifting stations ARLIS II and Fletchers Ice Island T-3 in the Arctic Ocean. The dataset covers a 16-year period from December 1952 to January 1968 and was created by the University of Washington. Data are preserved as scanned PDFs of original analog documents.

Use Cases

• Analyzing population trends for three specific copepod species over a 16-year period.
• Correlating historical zooplankton data with Arctic climate records.
• Studying species distribution from plankton tow samples at fixed ice stations.
• Validating ecological models with mid-20th century baseline data.

Strengths

• Temporal coverage spans 16 years from 1952 to 1968.
• Data originates from a recognized research institution (University of Washington).
• Presence on multiple platforms (NASA EarthData and Data.gov) indicates established use.

Limitations

• Core data is locked in scanned PDFs, requiring manual extraction for analysis.
• Column names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown from all sources.
• Conflicting last updated dates: one source shows 2026-03 05, another shows 1968-01-29.

Provenance

Source

University of Washington, archived by NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Plankton tows collected from drifting ice stations, with original analog counts scanned to PDF.

Time Range

1952-12-29 to 1968-01-29

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:38:15.191219

Geography

Arctic Ocean, specifically stations ARLIS II and Fletchers Ice Island T-3.