The Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder (AusCPR) survey is a joint project of CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (O&A) and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) to measure plankton communities as a guide to the health of Australia's oceans. The phytoplankton abundance data are analysed as per Richardson et al 2006. Phytoplankton are usually counted from water samples after settling but in the CPR analysis we count the phytoplankton in situ. With CPR samples, the phytoplankton is captured by the mesh and are caught by the silk strands, by phytoplankton mucilage, and/or by other organisms on the silk. It is thus possible to see the phytoplankton cells directly on the mesh. In essence, the phytoplankton is already concentrated. Washing the phytoplankton off the silks to count in the standard manner may result in loss of or damage to cells before analysis. The aims of the AusCPR survey are to: * map plankton biodiversity and distribution * develop the first long-term plankton baseline for Australian waters * document plankton changes in response to climate change * provide indices for fisheries management * detect harmful algal blooms * validate satellite remote sensing * initialise and test ecosystem models. Servicing and maintenance of the CPRs and analysis of the samples for the AusCPR survey will be carried out by staff based at the O&A laboratories in Queensland and at the AAD in Hobart. The project was funded by the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and falls with the Ships of Opportunity facility. Data storage and access is planned to be interoperable with other national and international programs through the IMOS Infrastructure. Results from the AusCPR survey are available through the AODN portal: https://portal.aodn.org.au. This data is freely available but please acknowledge all relevant parties, as detailed in acknowledgement section. Source: https://marlin.csiro.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/c1344979-f701-0916-e044-00144f7bc0f4. For information on using the data please refer to Richardson et al. 2006. It is advised that anyone using the data should read this methodology or contact the project contact person. The data are made available in binned products for ease of use. As taxonomy changes over time and the ability of analysts improves with training more and more species are able to be identified over time. The products account for these changes and for real absences from the samples. A 0 abundance means that the species was looked for and not seen, -999 means that the species was not looked for in that sample. The products are therefore applicable for use in time series analysis. There are 5 products to choose from: Raw product (includes all data); Species product (includes all data where species have been identified); Genus product (includes all data binned to genus level); Higher taxonomic group (includes all data binned to functional groups); Derived CPR Indices. The raw product contains the same information as the raw "flat table" form, but the absences have been added in and the taxonomic changes have been accounted for, for ease of use. Note: the binned and pivoted products described are currently only available by contacting imos-plankton@csiro.au. The latest raw data can be downloaded in "flat table" form (separate row for each taxon in each sample) on Step 3. All files are available in bio-volume instead of abundance on request.
This dataset has been superseded by the "IMOS - Phytoplankton Abundance and Biovolume (CPR)" collection that is available at https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/api/records/8e594cd1-363a-4b58-b741-9fa3624adb77 (this collection was removed from the AODN Portal in March 2022).
