Task Order No' I7 Historical Plankton Data Rescue

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Task Order No. I-7Historical Plankton Data
Rescue

• Todd D. OBrien
• Marine Ecosystems Division
• NMFS-HQ

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Scientific Rationale

• Why are historical zooplankton data important?
  Dramatic changes are occurring now in zooplankton
  populations around the globe, affecting
  commercial fisheries and marine ecosystems alike.
  To better study the reasons and effects of these
  changes, one must first know the historical
  states and trends of these zooplankton
  populations.
• How are these historical data being used? Data
  rescued by the plankton data project are made
  freely available online to the scientific
  community via the global plankton database
  COPEPOD and through various data products and
  publications. COPEPOD data are currently in use
  by a variety of ocean modeling, time-series,
  biodiversity, and ecosystem research groups.

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Project Accomplishments( COPEPOD-SAR from 2004
2009 )

• Since 2004, CDMP contractors have keyed over
  350,000 plankton observations collected by over
  2,500 net tows. These historical data, collected
  on hundreds cruises and surveys sampling around
  the globe, are available online in both raw and
  enhanced-content formats, readily accessible
  and useable by the scientific community.

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What next?!FY2010 plans and beyond

• Tasks for 2010
• Foreground work will include collaboration with
  institutions in New Zealand and India to rescue
  data from 40 years of sampling in the Antarctic
  and Indian Ocean
• Background work will focus on keying a collection
  of zooplankton and phytoplankton manuscripts for
  data along the US coastlines.
• COPEPOD-2010 will be published, featuring
  results of previous CDMP efforts in data, map,
  and product formats.
• How much more needs to be done on this project?
• At least one more year of work (i.e. FY2011) is
  possible with already in-hand materials and
  currently identified candidate data sources.
• New (old) data sources are continuously uncovered
  via ongoing library and institutional searches,
  as well as through direct investigator contact
  and networking.

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Thank you! CDMP funds give
new life to old data, making
old data available to new research.