Table of Contents

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

Notes:

1. Values are the number of organisms beneath 10 m^2 of sea surface.
2. Taxa were selected based on time series mean abundance > 100 per 100 m^3 and occurrence in greater than 5% of samples.
3. Number of stations between the 100 m^3 and 10 m^2 datasets may be different because the number of larvae under 10 m^2 was not calculated at stations where the net was greater than 5-m off the bottom.

Date: 26 January 2011:
As of July 30, 2010 we have attempted to replace the taxonomic abbreviations with the actual names in the displayed data. The original abbreviations are shown below for historical purposes.

List of taxonomic abbreviations and MARMAP codes:

COLUMN NAME	TAXANOMIC NAME		MARMAP TAXONOMIC CODE(S)
ctyp		Centropages typicus	103
calfin		Calanus finmarchicus	101
pseudo		Pseudocalanus spp.	102 and 4128
penilia		Penilia avirostris	611 and 613
tlong		Temora longicornis	104
cham		Centropages hamatus	109
echino		Echinodermata		1500-1599
append		Appendicularia		700-799
para		Paracalanus parvus	135
gas		Gastropoda		300-399, 1100-1199, 
                                        3300-3399
acarspp		Acartia spp.		4027
mlucens		Metridia lucens		105
evadnespp	Evadne spp.		605
salps		Salpa			3400-3499
oithspp		Oithona spp.		138
cirr		Cirripedia		2100-2199
chaeto		Chaetognatha		200-299
hyper		Hyperiidea		400-499, 800-849, 
                                        4600-4699
gam		Gammaridea		870-899, 4400-4499
evadnord	Evadne nordmanni	607
coe		Coelenterata		1200-1299, 1800-
                                        1899, 2300-2399
calminor	Calanus minor		143
copepoda	Copepoda		100
clauso		Clausocalanus arcuicornis	157
dec		Decapoda		500-599, 1000-
                                        1099,3100-3299
euph		Euphausiacea		2000-2099
prot		Protozoa		3900-3999
acarlong	Acartia longiremis	107
euc		Eucalanus spp.		180
pel		Pelecypoda		1300-1399
poly		Polychaeta		2500-2599
podon		Podon spp.		601
fish		Pisces			3500
bry		Bryozoa			900-949
fur		Clausocalanus furcatus 	4064
calspp		Calanus spp.		178
oncaea		Oncaea spp.		191
cory		Corycaeidae		4045
ost		Ostracoda		3600-3699
tstyl		Temora stylifera	153
oithspin	Oithona spinirostris	114
mysids		Mysidacea		2800-2899
temspp		Temora spp.		4059
tort		Tortanus discaudatus	108
paraspp		Paracalanus spp.	4118

NOAA/NMFS Data Use and Acknowledgement Policy:
These data are provided by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. A number of different vessels have been involved in sampling, and gear and methods have evolved over time. All of these factors affect sampling and the interpretation of data. The agency has developed correction factors to adjust for these changes and use other statistical tools for population estimates. The data we present here can be used as an index of abundance (over time or space) within a species or among species with similar vulnerability to the sampling gear. The data refer to a standard tow or sample and are not normalized to a unit area. Please refer to the detailed metadata for each dataset for more information, and to the data products for useful summaries of the data. Users are encouraged to contact the responsible agencies for guidance in using the data.

It is not ethical to publish data without proper attribution or co-authorship. The data are the intellectual property of the collecting investigator(s).

The intellectual investment and time committed to the collection of a data set entitles the investigator to the fundamental benefits of the data set. Publication of descriptive or interpretive results derived immediately and directly from the data is the privilege and responsibility of the investigators who collect the data.

The purpose of a data archive is to facilitate collaboration between scientists, to allow the combination of multiple data sets for interdisciplinary and comparative studies, and the development and testing of new theories. The data managed by the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) are made available even though they may not be "final" (i.e., error free) data.

Any person making substantial use of a data set must communicate with the investigators who acquired the data and/or the Data Management Office prior to publication and anticipate that the data collectors will be co-authors of published results. This extends to model results and to data organized for retrospective studies.

The data available here are intended for scholarly use by the academic and scientific community, with the express understanding that any such use will properly acknowledge the originating investigator. Use or reproduction of any material herein for any commercial purpose is prohibited without prior written permission from the Data Management Office.

Plankton sampling was conducted bi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly each year depending on the sampling program. Samples were collected both day and night on cruises using a 61-cm bongo net fitted with a 333-um mesh net. Oblique tows were a minimum of 5-minutes in duration, and fished from the surface to within 5-m of the seabed or to a maximum depth of 200-m. A mechanical flowmeter was fitted in the mouth of each net to record the volume sampled. Samples were preserved in 5% formalin.

This dataset does not include the samples from the 20cm Bongo.

It is requested that people use the following standard acknowledgement when publishing or presenting results that utilize NMFS data extracted from BCO-DMO:
"This study utilized data collected by the NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center as part of an ongoing mission to monitor and assess the Northeast Continental Shelf ecosystem." Source: NOAA NMFS NEFSC Oceanography Branch"

NOTE: Newest data, v3.1, (NMFS 3.1 - 2017-03-23) is not yet linked to the BCO-DMO mapping service.

Plankton tows differ with respect to volume of water filtered and maximum tow depth. In order to make data values comparable, these values were normalized through the use of a standard haul factor. The two standard haul factors were: the number of organisms beneath 10 m^2 of sea surface (eq. 1) and the number per 100 m^3 of water sampled (eq. 2).

Eq. 1: h = z * 10 / v

where: z = maximum tow depth (in meters)
v = volume of water filtered (in meters cubed)

Eq. 2: h = 100 / v where: v = volume of water filtered (in meters cubed)

Sample sorting and identification of most samples was done at the Morski Instytut Rybacki in Szczecin, Poland. Samples were reduced to approximately 500 organisms by sub-sampling into aliquots with a modifed box splitter. Zooplankton were sorted, counted, and identifed to the lowest possible taxa. The number for each taxa identifed was multiplied by the number of aliquots to estimate total sample abundance; which then was multiplied by one of the standard haul factors.

BCO-DMO Processing:
- reformatted date  from dd-Mon-yy to yyyy-mm-dd
- added columns for year, month, day
- sorted all the data by year, then cruise_name, then station
- replaced taxon codes with taxon names
- replaced 97 NaN's in volume column with nd
- transposed taxon columns to rows

Zooplankton data collected during several science programs including ICNAF, MARMAP, HERRING, ECOMON, and EcoMon. The purpose was to collect and count zooplankton along the east coast of the United States.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center is the research arm of NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast region. The Center plans, develops, and manages a multidisciplinary program of basic and applied research to: (1) better understand living marine resources of the Northeast Continental Shelf Ecosystem from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, and the habitat quality essential for their existence and continued productivity; and (2) describe and provide to management, industry, and the public, options for the conservation and utilization of living marine resources, and for the restoration and maintenance of marine environmental quality.

The functions are carried out through the coordinated efforts of research facilities located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Washington, DC.

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