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Program Management
The Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) has been collecting data from the North Atlantic and the North Sea on biogeography and ecology of plankton since 1931.
The CPR is a plankton sampling instrument designed to be towed from merchant ships on their normal sailings. Alister Hardy used the first prototype to sample krill in the Antarctic on the Discovery cruises of 1925-27. He modified the design for use in the North Sea, and started collecting plankton in the 1930s. The CPR was deployed in the North Sea regularly from 1946, on a number of routes.
The CPR team is based in Plymouth, England and consists of analysts, technicians, researchers and administrators, who all play an integral part in the running of the survey.
Data and Information Aspects
The CPR analysis method has remained unchanged since the 1950s, and underpins the database design (refer to Warner and Hays (1994) for a detailed methodology). Each CPR sample represents 10 nautical miles (approximately 3 cubic meters of water filtered). The analysis procedure comprises 3 stages: (i) phytoplankton, (ii) zooplankton 'traverse' and (iii) zooplankton ‘eyecount', all phytoplankton and zooplankton present are identified to species or taxon. Zooplankton 'traverse' and ‘eyecount' exact counts are assigned numerical categories. There are 10 numerical categories for phytoplankton and 12 for zooplankton. All analysis is carried out under light microscopes (54x - 450x) and binocular microscopes (17.5x - 140x).
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Users
The results of the survey are used by marine biologists in scientific institutes and in environmental change studies across the world.
Contact Information
Professor Peter Burkill
Director
Email: phb@sahfos.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 1752 633288 or +44 (0) 1752 633271
Fax +44 (0) 1752 600015
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