Abstract:
This dataset will serve to describe the overwintering dynamics of zooplankton in Franklin bay, southern Beaufort Sea. The CASES (Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study) overwintering station was sampled at weekly intervals from 9 December 2003 to 29 May 2004. Zooplankton were collected with a multi sampler Hydrobios® equipped with nine nets of 200 μm mesh size each that was deployed from the ... moonpool of the CCG scientific icebreaker Amundsen. The surface first 10 meters of the water column enclosed in the moonpool were not sampled. A total of 61 zooplankton species/taxa were identified. Copepodite stages of the copepods Oncaea borealis, Oithona similis, Metridia longa, Microcalanus pygmaeus, Calanus glacialis, Pseudocalanus sp., Calanus hyperboreus, and Cyclopina sp. numerically dominated the zooplankton assemblages, as previously observed in the region in 2002. Cnidarians, chaetognaths and gastropods were also abundant. This dataset will be updated periodically during 2007 with subsequent analysis of the CASES-sample series. The information will be used to calibrate a NPZD model (Nutrient-Phytoplankton-Zooplankton-Detritus) of southern Beaufort Sea. Another objective is to validate acoustic and video plankton recorder data by comparison with direct evaluation of zooplankton composition and distribution. Researchers using sediment traps moored in the region to study carbon flux are also interested in information on zooplankton composition and vertical distribution. This database has 61 unique species entries and consists of 4208 records; it is less than 2MB in size. Processing of the remaining samples is in progress and the database will be updated in the course of 2007
Purpose:
To assess arctic zooplankton composition and vertical distribution in Franklin Bay, southern Beaufort Sea.
Quality
ATTRIBUTE ACCURACY REPORT: The animals counts were done according to convention: sorting under a stereo microscope after sample splitting and sieving. The sample preserved in a 4% buffered formalin in seawater was sieved through 150 and 1000 μm mesh sieves. Accuracy is unknown. The nets can be subject to clogging by diatom chains and gelatinous zooplankton, but such events are unlikely during the ... winter period. Large zooplankton that are able to escape the vertical tows have most likely been undersampled by the Hydrobios.
LOGICAL CONSISTENCY REPORT: The same procedures were implemented on all sampling operations and for all taxa; findings should be consistent.
COMPLETENESS REPORT: Two size fractions considered (200-1000 and >1000 μm). Sorting done on a known aliquot from each size fraction containing approximately 300 organisms. The volumes sampled were estimated by flowmeters and are recorded in the dataset, allowing for calculations of numerical densities. Hydrobios surface aperture: 0.5 m2. The small surface aperture most likely resulted in the underestimation of the presence of rare taxa in the assemblages.
HORIZONTAL POSITIONAL ACCURACY REPORT: see Canadian Coast Guard website.
GPS locations taken at the time the sampler was starting to be hauled vertically from 10 m above the bottom. Four decimals in GPS reading.
VERTICAL POSITIONAL ACCURACY REPORT: GPS locations taken at the time the sampler was starting to be hauled vertically from 10 m above the bottom. Four decimals in GPS reading.
Access Constraints
None
Use Constraints
None, but suggested to contact data collectors for information re. interpreting.
