Publication Date:
2017-01-20
Description:
There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s,
but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers,
and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species
from Australian waters from 1844 to the present. Many of these are small datasets collected for local
questions, but combined they provide over 170 years of data on phytoplankton communities in Australian
waters. Units and taxonomy have been standardised, obviously erroneous data removed, and all metadata
included. We have lodged this dataset with the Australian Ocean Data Network (http://portal.aodn.org.au/)
allowing public access. The Australian Phytoplankton Database will be invaluable for global change studies,
as it allows analysis of ecological indicators of climate change and eutrophication (e.g., changes in
distribution; diatom:dinoflagellate ratios). In addition, the standardised conversion of abundance records to
biomass provides modellers with quantifiable data to initialise and validate ecosystem models of lower
marine trophic levels.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
Format:
application/pdf