Task Order No' I7 Historical Plankton Data Rescue

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Task Order No. I-7Historical Plankton Data
Rescue

• Todd D. OBrien
• NMFS Office of Science Technology
• Marine Ecosystems Division

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Why are historical zooplankton data important?

• Dramatic changes are occurring now in oceanic
  ecosystems around the world. These changes are
  most visible to the general public as declines
  (or even crashes) in local seabird and fish
  populations.
• These changes are due, in part, to changes in
  zooplankton abundance, composition and/or
  geographic distribution. Zooplankton, a critical
  food source for these fish and birds, are in turn
  responding to changes in local oceanographic
  conditions.

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How are these historical zooplankton data being
used?

• To study the recent changes in the zooplankton
  populations, one must know the historical states
  and trends of these populations.
• 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.

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Project AccomplishmentsCOPEPOD-SAR 2004 2008

• Since 2004, CDMP contractors have keyed 308,181
  plankton observations collected by 2,365 net
  tows. This represents plankton data from 392
  cruises around the world, which are now available
  online and readily useable by the scientific
  community.

And the statistics above do not include data
from the currently ongoing CalCOFI cards work!
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Whats next?FY2009 plans and beyond

• The beginning of FY2009 will be spent completing
  the remainder of the CalCOFI cards (14 cruises,
  2500 cards).
• The remainder of FY2009 will then continue with a
  focus on historical plankton data from coastal US
  waters.
• How much more needs to be done on this project?
• At least one more year of work (i.e. FY2010) 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 bring new life to old data