salp_swarms

Data Object salp_swarms

contact PIs:

name	title
Dr Larry Madin	Principal Investigator
Dr Patricia Kremer	Co-Principal Investigator

Dataset description

Abundance, size, fecundity of Salpa aspera in the Slope Waters off northeastern USA

Associated datasets: salp_chloro

Acquisition description

Bongo tows were made to a depth of about 50m (based on wire out and wire angle). As the tows were done at night, that includes essentially the entire population of these vertically migrating salps. Information on the depth distribution of the species is included in:
Madin, L. P., P. Kremer, P.H. Wiebe, J. E. Purcell, E. H. Horgan, D. A. Nemazie. 2006. Periodic swarms of the salp Salpa aspera in the slope water off the NE United States: Biovolume, vertical migration, grazing, and vertical flux. Deep-sea Research 53(5):804-819. (pdf)

Processing description

The sizes for the aggregates are for individual animals in the chains. Chains were broken up during collection. Measurements of the aggregates do not include the "tips" but are for oral-aboral length only. The solitary forms are basically cylindrical so the length measurements are for the totals.

'premature': These embryos were released as an artifact associated with net collection.

OC-381: 'live biovolume of counted/measured aliquot': for the first few tows this represents the aliquot, ml of the total that was enumerated. Beginning with Tow 7, all aliquots were 250 ml . If the total was less than that, the entire sample was counted.

Field Names List

Parameter	Description	Units
cruise_id	cruise designation
year	year, reported as YYYY, e.g. 2005
haul_id	haul identification number
date_local	local month, day and year, usually as a text string, e.g. feb10_1995.
time_local	time of day, local time, using 2400 clock format
month_local	month of year, local time
yrday_local	local day and decimal time, as 326.5 for the 326th day of the year, or November 22 at 1200 hours
lat	latitude, in decimal degrees, North is positive, negative denotes South	decimal degrees
lon	longitude, in decimal degrees, East is positive, negative denotes West	decimal degrees
day_local	day, local time
dvol_liters	displacement volume (biovolume) of plankton net samples	liters
volfilt	volume of water filtered during plankton tow	meters^3
biovol_per_aliq	the aliquot, ml of the total that was enumerated. Beginning with Tow 7 (OC-379), all aliquots were 250 ml . If the total was less than that, the entire sample was counted.	milliliters
form	the morphological stage of the salp, either aggregate (agg) or solitary (sol)
fertilized_flag	for colonial stage only: Y=embryos present; N=none seen
fraction_chain_inside	the fraction of the embryo that is still inside the solitary adult after capture in the net.
comments

Platforms List

R/V Oceanus OC379

R/V Oceanus OC381

Instruments List

Conductivity, Temperature, Depth:
Fluorometer:

This document is created from the content of the BCO-DMO metadata database. 2010-02-09 14:12:21

info app: /home/bco/dbase-v2 v.100108 CLC
Data URL: http://data.bco-dmo.org/jg/serv/BCO/Unaffiliated/SalpSwarmDyn/salp_swarms.