Keyword
Paracalanus indicus
2 record(s)
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Status
draft
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Zooplankton are the key trophic link between primary producers and fish in pelagic ecosystems. Historically, there are few zooplankton time series in Australia, with no datasets longer than two years prior to 2008. Here we compile 98,676 abundance records of more than 1,000 zooplankton taxa from unpublished research cruises, student projects, published literature and the recent Integrated Marine Observing System. This dataset covers the entire coastal and shelf region of Australia and dates back to 1938. Most records are for copepods, but there are also data for other taxa such as decapods, chaetognaths, thaliaceans, appendicularians and cladocerans. Metadata are provided for each record, including dates, coordinates and information on mesh size and sampling methods. To facilitate analysis across the multiple datasets, we have updated the species names according to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS; http://www.marinespecies.org/about.php) and converted units to abundance per m3. These data will be valuable for studies of biodiversity, biogeography, impacts of climate change and ecosystem health. We encourage researchers holding additional Australian zooplankton data to contact us and contribute their data to the dataset so we can periodically publish updates.
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There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers, and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,665,221 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the present. Many of these are small datasets collected for local questions, but combined they provide over 170 years of data on phytoplankton communities in Australian waters. Units and taxonomy have been standardised, obviously erroneous data removed, and all metadata included. We have lodged this dataset with the Australian Ocean Data Network (http://imos.aodn.org.au/), allowing public access. The Australian Phytoplankton Database will be invaluable for global change studies, as it allows analysis of ecological indicators of climate change and eutrophication (e.g., changes in distribution; diatom:dinoflagellate ratios). In addition, the standardised conversion of abundance records to biomass provides modellers with quantifiable data to initialise and validate ecosystem models of lower marine trophic levels.