Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

U.S. GLOBEC Northeast Pacific California Current Program MOCNESS Plankton (MOC1) Data

Data Collections were done as part of several projects.
Contact for this dataset is:
Dr. William Peterson (bill.peterson@noaa.gov)
Phone: 541-867-0201

All inquiries about this data should be directed to Dr. Peterson.

Data Description

The MOC1 data are organized by cruise within year. The master page (Level 0) lists all of the cruises in chronological order. Clicking on a cruise will show all of the casts collected/processes from that cruise (Level 1). Clicking on a cast will bring up the Level 2 file that shows all of the samples (nets) processed from that cast. Clicking on the sample_id (ranges from "1" to "8" for this type of data) will display the Level 3 data, which are the actual taxonomic categories and abundances for that particular sample. Additional info about the variables is described below.

Metadata last updated 29 May 2012;smr, BCO-DMO

The MOCNESS is based on the Tucker Trawl principle (Tucker, 1951). The MOCNESS-1 has nine rectangular nets (1m x 1.4 m) which are opened and closed sequentially by commands through conducting cable from the surface (Wiebe et al., 1976). In MOCNESS systems, "the underwater unit sends a data frame, comprised of temperature, depth, conductivity, net-frame angle, flow count, time, number of open net, and net opening/closing, to the deck unit in a compressed hexadecimal format every 2 seconds and from the deck unit to a microcomputer every 4 seconds... Temperature (to approximately 0.01 deg C) and conductivity are measured with SEABIRD sensors . Normally, a modified T.S.K.-flowmeter is used... Both the temperature and conductivity sensors and the flowmeter are mounted on top of the frame so that they face horizontally when the frame is at a towing angle of 45deg... Calculations of salinity (to approximately 0.01 o/oo S), potential temperature (theta), potential density (sigma), the oblique and vertical velocities of the net, and the approximate volume filtered by each net are made after each string of data has been received by the computer." (Wiebe et al., 1985) In addition, depending on the particular configuration of the MOCNESS-1, data may have been collected from other sensors attached to the frame : (Transmissometer, Fluorometer, Downwelling light sensor, and the Oxygen sensor). A SeaBird underwater pump was also included in the sensor suite.

After retrieval to deck, the contents of the nets were rinsed into the codends and transferred to storage bottles, and fixed and preserved with formalin. In the shore laboratory, the contents of the bottles were subsampled and counts and biomass estimates made for selected taxa (see the Proc_Protocol info below). This data object reports only the count information.

Program in a Nutshell

Goal: To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations.

Approach: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data series.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).