Dataset: Zooplankton biomass measured from net tows conducted during ongoing monthly cruises, from April 1994 to June 2024, at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site in the Sargasso Sea

Final no updates expectedDOI: 10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.881861.5Version 5 (2025-01-27)Dataset Type:Cruise Results

Principal Investigator: Deborah K. Steinberg (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)

Scientist, Contact: Joseph Cope (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)

BCO-DMO Data Manager: Shannon Rauch (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)


Program: Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB)

Program: U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (U.S. JGOFS)

Program: Ocean Time-series Sites (Ocean Time-series)

Project: Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS)


Abstract

This dataset includes measurements of zooplankton biomass from net tows conducted during ongoing monthly cruises, from April 1994 to June 2024, at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site (31° 40' N 64° 10'W) in the Sargasso Sea. Mesozooplankton were collected by oblique tows using a rectangular frame net with 202 micrometer (µm) mesh. Samples from tows were immediately split on board for subsequent wet and dry weight measurements.

Sampling was conducted on ongoing monthly cruises, starting in April 1994, at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site (31° 40' N 64° 10'W) in the Sargasso Sea. Mesozooplankton were collected with a rectangular frame (0.8 x 1.2 meters) net with 202 micrometer (µm) mesh. Two replicate double oblique tows through the euphotic zone at a ship speed of 1 nautical mile per hour (nm/h) were made during the day (between about 0900 and 1500 h) and night (between about 2000 and 0200 h) on each BATS cruise. The targeted maximum net depth was between 150 and 200 meters (m) and absolute depth was recorded with a temperature-depth recorder. The volume of water filtered by the net (m³) was measured with a General Oceanics flowmeter.

Samples from the tows were split immediately on board. One half-split was fractionated by wet sieving through nested sieves with mesh sizes of 5.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.5, and 0.2 millimeters (mm), with individual fractions transferred to preweighed disks of 0.2 mm nitex netting and frozen for subsequent wet and dry weight (in milligrams) analyses.


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Results

Madin, L. P., Horgan, E. F., & Steinberg, D. K. (2001). Zooplankton at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) station: diel, seasonal and interannual variation in biomass, 1994–1998. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 48(8–9), 2063–2082. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0967-0645(00)00171-5
Results

Steinberg, D. K., Lomas, M. W., & Cope, J. S. (2012). Long-term increase in mesozooplankton biomass in the Sargasso Sea: Linkage to climate and implications for food web dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2010gb004026
General

Ivory, J. A., Steinberg, D. K., & Latour, R. J. (2018). Diel, seasonal, and interannual patterns in mesozooplankton abundance in the Sargasso Sea. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 76(1), 217–231. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsy117
General

Lomas, M. W., Bates, N. R., Johnson, R. J., Knap, A. H., Steinberg, D. K., & Carlson, C. A. (2013). Two decades and counting: 24-years of sustained open ocean biogeochemical measurements in the Sargasso Sea. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 93, 16–32. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.01.008
General

Steinberg, D. K., Carlson, C. A., Bates, N. R., Johnson, R. J., Michaels, A. F., & Knap, A. H. (2001). Overview of the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS): a decade-scale look at ocean biology and biogeochemistry. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 48(8–9), 1405–1447. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0967-0645(00)00148-x