The Australian Chlorophyll a Database (1965 onwards)

Chlorophyll a is the most commonly used indicator of phytoplankton biomass and is a proxy for primary productivity in the marine environment. It is relatively simple and cost effective to measure when compared to phytoplankton abundance and is thus routinely included in many surveys. Here we collate 173,333 records of chlorophyll a collected since 1965 from Australian waters gathered from researchers, from regular coastal monitoring surveys to long ocean voyages. This dataset concentrates on samples analysed using spectrophotometry, fluorometry and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The Australian Chlorophyll a database is freely available through the Australian Ocean Data Network portal (http://imos.aodn.org.au/). These data can be used in isolation as an index of phytoplankton biomass or in combination with other data to provide insight into water quality, ecosystem state, and / or the relationships with other trophic levels such as zooplankton or fish.