Continuous Plankton Recorder Database: evolution, current uses and future directions.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey, operated by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), is the largest plankton monitoring programme in the world and has spanned >70 yr. The dataset contains information from ~200 000 samples, with over 2.3 million records of individual taxa. Here we outline the evolution of the CPR database through changes in technology, and how this has increased data access. Recent high-impact publications and the expanded role of CPR data in marine management demonstrate the usefulness of the dataset. We argue that solely supplying data to the research community is not sufficient in the current research climate; to promote wider use, additional tools need to be developed to provide visual representation and summary statistics. We outline 2 software visualisation tools, SAHFOS WinCPR and the digital CPR Atlas, which provide access to CPR data for both researchers and non-plankton specialists. We also describe future directions of the database, data policy and the development of visualisation tools. We believe that the approach at SAHFOS to increase data accessibility and provide new visualisation tools has enhanced awareness of the data and led to the financial security of the organisation; it also provides a good model of how long-term monitoring programmes can evolve to help secure their future.

Primary Production In A Turbid Estuary

The primary production in the Bristol Channel, U.K., was studied from 1973 to 1977: in this estuary, the euphotic zone extends from less than 0.5 m to greater than 10m and there is a large riverine input of inorganic nutrients. The standing stock of phytoplankton chlorophyll a was measured in 1973 and 1974 and was similar throughout the Bristol Channel but the rate of primary production was much greater where the water was less turbid. The estimated primary production was 6.8g C m−2 for the most turbid region and 164.9g C m−2 for the Outer Bristol Channel. A larger proportion of the annual primary production occurred in the spring in the Outer Channel than in the most turbid regions. Phaeocystis developed into blooms in some, but not all, years and exhibited a different light saturation curve to other phytoplankton populations. Serial incubations of short duration gave higher fixation rates than day-long incubations and it is argued that photoinhibition is probably insignificant in a mixed water column. Excretion rates of dissolved organic carbon by phytoplankton were always low.

The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) data management experience

As the UK's national marine data centre, a key responsibility of the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) is to provide data management support for the scientific activities of complex multi-disciplinary long-term research programmes. Since the initial cruise in 1995, the NERC funded Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) project has undertaken 18 north–south transects of the Atlantic Ocean. As the project has evolved there has been a steady growth in the number of participants, the volume of data, its complexity and the demand for data. BODC became involved in AMT in 2002 at the beginning of phase II of this programme and since then has provided continuous support to the AMT and the wider scientific community through the rescue, quality control, processing and access to the data. The data management is carried out by a team of specialists using a sophisticated infrastructure and hardware to manage, integrate and serve physical, biological and chemical data. Here, we discuss the approach adopted, techniques applied and some guiding principles for management of large multi-disciplinary programmes.

Oxygen photolysis in the Mauritanian upwelling: Implications for net community production

We carried out 16 photochemical experiments of filtered surface water in a custom-built solar simulator and concomitant measurements of in vitro gross primary production (GPP) and respiration (R) in the Mauritanian upwelling during a Lagrangian study following three sulfur hexafluoride–labeled patches of upwelled water (P1 to P3). Oxygen photolysis rates were correlated with the absorbance of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) at 300 nm, suggesting first-order kinetics with respect to CDOM. An exponential fit was used to calculate the apparent quantum yield (AQY) for oxygen photolysis, giving an average AQY of 0.00053 µmol O2 (mole photons m−2 s−1)−1 at 280 nm and slope of 0.0012 nm−1. Modeled photochemical oxygen demand (POD) at the surface (3–16 mmol m−3 d−1) occasionally exceeded R and was dominated by ultraviolet radiation (71–79%). Euphotic-layer integrated GPP decreased with time during both P-1 and P-3, whereas R remained relatively constant and POD increased during P-1 and decreased during P-3. On Day 4 of P-3, GPP and POD maxima coincided with high CDOM absorbance, suggesting “new” CDOM production. Omitting POD may lead to an underestimation of net community production (NCP), both through in vitro and geochemical methods (here by 2–22%). We propose that oxygen-based NCP estimates should be revised upward. For the Mauritanian upwelling, the POD-corrected NCP was strongly correlated with standard NCP with a slope of 1.0066 ± 0.0244 and intercept of 46.51 ± 13.15 mmol m−2 d−1.

Biodiversity Loss in the Ocean: How Bad Is It?

MURAWSKI AND COLLEAGUES STATE THAT OUR assessment of the impacts of global marine biodiversity loss is overly pessimistic. They imply that management interventions are likely to reverse current trends of overfishing, and that the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has already met that goal. They cite Georges Bank haddock as an example and contest that catch metrics (as used in our global analysis) are sufficient to track the status of this particular fish stock and possibly others. We agree that precise biomass data are preferable, but these are rarely available. Here, we illustrate that catches are a good proxy of the status of haddock, although there can be a short delay in detecting recovery under intense management. While NMFS’s own data show that full recovery is still uncommon (<5% of overfished stocks) (1), we strongly agree that destructive trends can be turned around and that rebuilding efforts need to be intensified to meet that goal. But we must not miss the forest for the trees: Continuing focus on single, well-assessed, economically viable species will leave most of the ocean’s declining biodiversity under the radar.