EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS > PLANKTON > ZOOPLANKTON
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Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 1101 See the link below for public details on this project. ---- Public Summary from Project ---- Most of our knowledge of the Antarctic marine ecosystems comes from summer surveys. There are very few observations of this ecosystem in winter and there is a fundamental lack of knowledge of understanding of even basic questions such as 'what is there?' and 'what's it doing?'. The proposed visit to the sea ice zone in winter is a rare opportunity to conduct observations on phytoplankton, krill, birds, seals and whales, so that we can begin to understand the biological processes that go on in winter. Data for this project were intended to be collected on a 1998 winter voyage of the Aurora Australis, but a fire on board meant that the voyage had to return to port before work could be carried out. Data were then collected the following year during a 1999 winter voyage of the Aurora Australis (IDIOTS), which ran from July to September. Data attached to this metadata record, include zooplankton and CTD data collected from the Mertz Glacier region. The data have been compiled by Angela McGaffin, and can be found in the "processed" folder of the download file. Original datasets are also available in the "Original Datasets" folder.
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This dataset is a document describing the Pelagic Tunicates of the Southern Ocean. It lists all the known Southern Ocean species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. The document is available for download as a pdf from the provided URL.
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We studied the gut contents of four dominant copepod species (Calanoides acutus, Calanus propinquus, Calanus simillimus and Rhincalanus gigas) during the summer (2014-2015) along a latitudinal gradient (sampled every 5° between 40°S and 65°S) in the Indian sector of the SO. Diatoms were the most abundant food item found in the guts, comprising 24 of the 25 species found, and 15 were common to the four species of copepod studied. Diatoms accounted for the lowest proportion of the diet in the warmer, northern waters while all the large diatoms (e.g. Chaetoceros atlanticus, C. criophilus, C. dichaeta, Corethron spp.) were only found at 65oS. The most frequent species in the guts were the centric diatoms Thalassiosira spp. (4 to 57%) and the pennate diatoms Fragilariopsis kerguelensis (27 to 80%) and Trichoctoxon reinboldii (2 to 50%); proportions varied within a species across locations. These species were found at all sites examined, whereas some diatoms were specific to one copepod species: Asteromphalus spp. (in R. gigas), C. criophilus and C. dichaeta (in C. acutus), Nitzschia lecointei and N. sicula (in C. propinquus).
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This dataset is a document describing the Metazoan Zooplankton of the Southern Ocean. It lists all the known species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. The document is available for download as a pdf from the provided URL.
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Taken from the abstracts of the referenced papers: Distribution patterns of pelagic fish, larvae and juveniles collected by RMT trawls during BROKE survey to CCAMLR Division 58.4.1 were investigated. Nearly 2000 individuals, weighing 1210 g, were collected from approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of the upper 200 m of ocean, supporting the theory that Antarctic ichthyoplankton has low biomass. The collection consisted mainly of P. antarcticum larvae and juveniles and E. antarctica sub-adults, with a range of other notothenioid fish and myctophids. Three distinct biogeographic zones, with characteristic ichthyo- and zooplankton assemblages, were identified. The Oceanic Zone was dominated by myctophids and, in the western reaches, the paralepidid N. coasti. The shelf break zone comprised of myctophids, and the juveniles of notothenioid fish. The shelf zone consisted of notothenioid juveniles and sub-adults. Characteristic water masses and associated zooplankton assemblages were found throughout these three zones. Analysis of fish stomach contents indicated feeding on locally abundant zooplankton taxa. There was niche-partitioning of prey taxa and size classes, between both sympatric species and between different ontogenetic stages. Fish distributions corresponded to known patterns, and extended the geographic range of several species. ##### Zooplankton data from routine 0-200 m oblique trawls were analysed using cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling to define the communities in Eastern Antarctica (80-150 E), their distribution patterns, indicator species, and species affinities. Three communities were defined based on routine trawls. The Main Oceanic Community comprising herbivorous copepods, chaetognaths, and the euphausiid Thysanoessa macrura dominated the area west of 120 E. The area east of 120 E was dominated by Salpa thompsoni. The third community located in the neritic zone was dominated by Euphausia crystallorophias. Antarctic krill Euphausia superba did not form a distinct community in its own right, unlike previous observations in Prydz Bay. Krill were distributed throughout most of the survey area but generally in higher abundances towards the shelf break. Overall, krill abundance was low compared with previous net surveys in Prydz Bay. Three main types of assemblages were identified based on target trawls. The first group was dominated by krill (mean 1149 individuals per 1000 cubic metres) which represented greater than 99% of Group 1 catches in terms of numbers and biomass. Group 2 comprised the bulk of target trawls and comprised a wide diversity of species typical of the main oceanic community, with a mean abundance approximately half of that observed in the routine trawls. The third group comprised trawls in the neritic zone dominated by E. crystallorophias. No salp-dominated aggregation was found. While E. superba did not dominate a distinct community geographically as seen in previous Prydz Bay surveys, it did dominate discrete layers or aggregations, showing that both horizontal and vertical separation of communities exist. ##### The download file contains the following documents: 199596040Composition.csv 199596040Density.csv 199596040Biomass.csv
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Zooplankton were collected with a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 8+1 net) from 37 sampling sites on and near the Southern Kerguelen Plateau. The contents of each net were preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde. This dataset covers the counts of the contents of the RMT1 net. The contents were split in the laboratory using a Motoda Box and then identified and counted under a Leica M165C stereo-microscope. A flow meter attached to the mouth of the RMT 8 was used to record the volume of seawater passing through the net, and this volume was converted to water passing through the RMT 1 by applying the conversion factor of 2.027357. The organisms in the samples were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. For copepods and euphausiids this level was to species, and generally to sex and/or development stage. For other groups, the identifications were to high levels such as Family or Order.
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Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 473 See the link below for public details on this project. Data for this project was primarily collected on two voyages to the Heard Island area - the HIMS voyage (1990), and the FISHOG voyage (1992). The data have been compiled by Angela McGaffin, and can be found in the "processed" folder of the download file. Original datasets are also available in the "Original Datasets" folder. The data primarily consist of CTD data, krill data and zooplankton data. HIMS was a marine science voyage, which travelled to Heard Island in May and June of 1990. FISHOG was a marine science voyage, which travelled to Heard Island and Antarctica from January to March of 1992.
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Data stored in a Dryad package (doi:10.5061/dryad.c75sj) associated with the publication: Genetic monitoring of open ocean biodiversity: an evaluation of DNA metabarcoding for processing continuous plankton recorder samples Authors: Bruce Deagle , Laurence Clarke , John Kitchener, Andrea Polanowski, Andrew Davidson. Molecular Ecology Resources. The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) has been used to characterise zooplankton biodiversity along transects covering hundreds of thousands of kilometres in the Southern Ocean CPR survey. Plankton collected by the CPR is currently identified using is classical taxonomy (i.e. using a microscope and morphological features). We investigated the potential to use DNA metabarcoding (species identification from DNA mixtures using high-throughput DNA sequencing) as a tool for rapid collection of taxonomic data from CPR samples. In our study, zooplankton were collected on CPR silks along two transects between Tasmania and Macquarie Island. Plankton were identified using standard microscopic methods and by sequencing a mitochondrial COI marker. Data provided in the Dryad Data entry include the DNA sequences (Illumina MiSeq) recovered, the morphological identifications and the R-code used to analyse these data. The results from our study show that a DNA-based approach increased the number of metazoan species identified and provided high resolution taxonomy of groups problematic in conventional surveys (e.g. larval echinoderms and hydrozoans). Metabarcoding also generally produced more detections than microscopy, but this sensitivity may make cross-contamination during sampling a problem. In some samples, the prevalence of DNA from larger plankton (such as krill) masked the presence of smaller species. Overall, the genetic data represents a substantial shift in perspective, making direct integration into current long-term time-series challenging. We discuss a number of hurdles that exist for progressing this powerful DNA metabarcoding approach from the current snapshot studies to the requirements of a long-term monitoring program.
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Zooplankton were collected with a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 8+1 net) from 37 sampling sites on and near the Southern Kerguelen Plateau. The contents of each net were preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde. This dataset covers the counts of the contents of the RMT8 net and includes the abundances for the euphausiid Thysanoessa macrura and the salp Salpa thompsoni. The contents were identified and counted under a Leica M165C stereo-microscope. A flow meter attached to the mouth of the RMT 8 was used to record the volume of seawater passing through the net. The count for Thysanoessa macrura includes the total of all developmental stages. For the salps abundances are shown for the 2 developmental phases - solitary individuals and aggregates.
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Krill Ecology - Technical Reports and Systems Guides A series of documents detailing work completed and methods used at the Krill Aquarium located at the Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report # Title and Author Technical Report 1. 26th January 1994. DAPI Epiflourescence Technique. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 2. 5th March 1995. Bag Culture - Cell Growth Count Protocol. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 3. 12th January 1996. Chemical 'Spiking' of Krill Aquarium Bio-filter T12. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 4. 24th June 1996. Cold Temperature Algal Bag Culture Methodology. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 5. 16th April 1997. Algal Bag Culture - Harvesting Method. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 6. 26th October 1999. Aquarium System Bulk Seawater Collection and Storage. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 7. 11th October 1999. Sodium Hypochlorite Treatment of Algal Bag Culture Filtration Unit. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 8. 18th October 1999. Feeding Krill - Algal Strains, Feeding Rate and Nutritional Values. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 9. 22nd November 1999. Krill Biology Section - Parental Algal Culture Maintenance. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 10. 10th April 2000. Krill Group Databases and Maintaining Daily Data Records. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 11. 11th May 2000. Making Up and Use of Iodine Solution as an Indicator of the Presence of Chlorine in Freshwater. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 12. 1st June 2000. Testing for Harmful Ammonia (NH3) in Aquarium Sea Water. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 13. 12th June 2000. Digitron Digilog 2088T Digital Temperature Logger/Gauge - Operating Instructions and Down-Loading Logged Data Guide. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 14. 27th June 2000. Krill Biology - Marine Science Support Shed Gear Storage. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 15. 15th October 2000. Making up of fe Growth Media Stock Solutions for Parental and Algal Bag Culture Production. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 16. 15th January 2001. Algal Bag Culture - Growth Rate Analysis. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 17. 19th July 2004. Protective Epoxy Coating of Onga Seawater Collection Fire Pump. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 18. 27th October 2004. New Krill Aquarium - Bulk Seawater Collection and Storage Logistics. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 19. 11th March 2005. New Krill Aquarium - Algal Bag Culture Filtration System. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 20. 6th April 2005. New Culture Cabinet Bag to Bag Inoculation Procedure. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 21. 17th June 2005. Agar Bacterial Plate Testing for Krill Algal Culture Stocks. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 22. 29th July 2004. New Algal Culture Cabinet - Bag Culture Setup Methodology. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 23. 24th May 2005. Protocol for Sterilization of Bag Culture Air Supply System. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 24. 30th May 2005. 200 litre tank Algal Batch Culture Setup. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Technical Report 25. 22nd June 2005. Making Up and Shaping Plastic Bags for Algal Culture. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division. Techincal Report 26. 19th December 2005. New Krill Aquarium - Algal Strains, Feeding Rates and Nutritional Values. Author: P. M. Cramp. Australian Antarctic Division.