The SCAR Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey was established in 1991 by the Australian Antarctic Division,of Environment, Water Heritage and the Arts, to map the spatial-temporal patterns of zooplankton and then to use the sensitivity of plankton to environmental change as early warning indicators of the health of the Southern Ocean. It also serves as reference for other Southern Ocean and Antarctic monitoring programs.
Several countries collaborate in the survey providing vessels to tow Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs) in a near circum-Antarctic survey. Tows conducted between Hobart and the French Antarctic station Dumont d’Urville are also conducted in collaboration with the IMOSAustralian Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey. The SO-CPR Survey is supported by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and its Expert Group on Continuous Plankton Research, which helps promote and develop the survey.
The CPRs are towed from research and supply vessels. The CPR is towed at about 10 metres below the surface and for about 450 nautical miles (830 km) per tow. The plankton enters a small opening in the device and is trapped and preserved between two layers of silk mesh. These vessels also collect at the same time underway data such as sea surface temperature, salinity, fluorometry, light and other oceanographic-meteorological parameters. All plankton in five nautical mile (9 km) equivalent sections are identified to the lowest possible taxa, usually species and counted. Antarctic krill and other euphausiids are identified to developmental stage. Plankton counts are combined with averaged environmental data for each 5-nautical-mile (9.3 km).
Approximately 40-50 tows are made each year. More than 80 tows were completed in 2007-08 International Polar Year in support of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life. 135,000 nautical miles (250,000 km) of data have been collected since 1991, producing more than 27,000 samples for 200+ taxa coupled with environmental data. Most data comes from the October to April period. Few ships operate in the region during winter but some winter tows south of Australia have been made.
Use of the SO-CPR data for research purposes is encouraged. Data are made available soon after the CPR samples are processed. Data are held at the Australian Antarctic Data Centre and at the SCAR Marine Biodiversity Information Network.
Famous quotes containing the words scar, southern, ocean, continuous and/or survey:
“One hand stiff—heaviness of forties & menopause reduced
by one heart stroke, lame now—wrinkles—a scar on
her head, the lobotomy—ruin, the hand dipping downwards to
death—”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“If the study of his images
Is the study of man, this image of Saturday,
This Italian symbol, this Southern landscape, is like
A waking, as in images we awake,
Within the very object that we seek,
Participants of its being.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“The gap between ideals and actualities, between dreams and achievements, the gap that can spur strong men to increased exertions, but can break the spirit of others—this gap is the most conspicuous, continuous land mark in American history. It is conspicuous and continuous not because Americans achieve little, but because they dream grandly. The gap is a standing reproach to Americans; but it marks them off as a special and singularly admirable community among the world’s peoples.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“In a famous Middletown study of Muncie, Indiana, in 1924, mothers were asked to rank the qualities they most desire in their children. At the top of the list were conformity and strict obedience. More than fifty years later, when the Middletown survey was replicated, mothers placed autonomy and independence first. The healthiest parenting probably promotes a balance of these qualities in children.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)