Recovering these data started with the metadata: how, when and where the zooplankton data
were collected. The metadata being sought are summarized in Table 1. As noted above, the data
reside in notebooks , cruise reports, old computer files, and blue cover reports.
However, the crucial element that makes the effort possible is the presence of the scientist who
conducted the research for which the samples were collected and remembers many important
details about where to look and what to look for. At one time some of the data were entered into
a main-frame based database system, which has since disappeared (Hunt and Wiebe, [12]).
The search began systematically with the listing of all of the cruises that were participated on in
the 1970s and 1980s, and then seeking out the information/data listing the zooplankton
net tows. All of the data included cruise ids, station information, tow information, net
descriptions rudimentary or otherwise, latitudes and longitudes, times and instrument depths,
often including multiple sampling depths with the same net system.
Information was not often complete in the analysis notebooks and this
required going back into the original cruise log books and crosschecking with other published
papers.
For some cruises there was a personal log that had information to fill in the blanks.
There were also errors. The most potentially damaging errors were those of station position.
Degrees and decimal minutes were sometimes converted to decimal degrees by simply moving
the decimal place and not first dividing the minutes by 60. In addition, sometimes a discrepancy
was found between the same information in two different sources. Those errors had to be
tracked down using as many other sources as possible.
BCO-DMO Blog
©2024 Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office.
