Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Zooplankton Meter²count from GSO/URI - 1 m² MOCNESS nets only
The Zooplankton Meter² Database for the Georges Bank GLOBEC project was located in the laboratory of Ted Durbin at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. It was accessed via the U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank data management system using SQLPlus network access to the data base management system at URI. Data were cached and  are served from the local computer.

A description of the original URI database is available online and includes the design and variable definitions. A version of this document is shown here.

Note: Our program's Data Acknowledgement Policy requires that any person making substantial use of a data set must communicate with the investigators who acquired the data prior to publication and anticipate that the data collectors will be co-authors of published results.

The following documentation applies to the data found locally on the WHOI GLOBEC Data Server:
The data is served as a hierarchy. The least changing variables are in higher order levels (e.g., cruise id, year, month, etc.), while variables that change the most are in the lower order levels (e.g., time of collection, net number, taxon collected, etc.) There are six levels within the data; variable names and descriptions are given in the metadata.

Most column variable names and instrument names were taken from the U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank data thesaurus; those that were not follow the GLOBEC data protocols. The taxonomic code variable (taxon_code) is from the National Oceanographic Data Center's Taxonomic List, version 8. Taxonomic information is built into these ten-digit codes as they reflect the systematic nomenclature.

You may contact BCO-DMO for additional help.

06 Sept 2012 - BCO-DMO re-formatted data, adding the stage and count columns.

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Program is a large multi- disciplinary multi-year oceanographic effort. The proximate goal is to understand the population dynamics of key species on the Bank - Cod, Haddock, and two species of zooplankton (Calanus finmarchicus and Pseudocalanus) - in terms of their coupling to the physical environment and in terms of their predators and prey. The ultimate goal is to be able to predict changes in the distribution and abundance of these species as a result of changes in their physical and biotic environment as well as to anticipate how their populations might respond to climate change.

The effort is substantial, requiring broad-scale surveys of the entire Bank, and process studies which focus both on the links between the target species and their physical environment, and the determination of fundamental aspects of these species' life history (birth rates, growth rates, death rates, etc).

Equally important are the modelling efforts that are ongoing which seek to provide realistic predictions of the flow field and which utilize the life history information to produce an integrated view of the dynamics of the populations.

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Executive Committee (EXCO) provides program leadership and effective communication with the funding agencies.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).