2001 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2 Technical report - An overview of plankton ecology in the North Sea

This report is a contribution to the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2. It gives an overview of the phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition in the North Sea and how this has fluctuated through the latter half of the 20th Century in response to environmental change. The study is based on a unique long-term dataset of plankton abundance in the North Atlantic and the North Sea acquired by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR). The dinoflagellate genus Ceratium dominates the phytoplankton community in the North Sea, but diatoms are also important, especially in the southern part. The normal annual blooms of plankton are discussed, as are harmful algal blooms (HABs), which appear to be on the increase, possibly due to a combination of climatic variability and eutrophication. Among the zooplankton, copepods are particularly important and constitute a major food resource for many commercial fish species, such as cod and herring. Calanus is the dominant copepod genus in the North Atlantic. Other important components of the plankton, meroplankton, picoplankton and megaplankton are also reviewed. Very small picoplankton (~1 micron in diameter) and much larger gelatinous members of the megaplankton (e.g. jellyfish and ctenophores) are poorly sampled by the CPR. Although the picoplankton represents a sizeable fraction of total primary production, its role in the marine ecosystem is poorly understood. The introduction of non-indigenous plankton in ship's ballast water has been in progress for about a century. There is growing concern about the risk of alien species, and the importance of protecting native biodiversity.

Date (Publication): 2001-08-01

Citation identifier: British Geological Survey / BGS_SEA_20

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Geological Survey (BGS)	Paul Henni	offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk	Custodian
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)		enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

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Name	Version
Documents

Keywords

NDGO0001

SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Habitats and biotopes
Species distribution

SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages

Use limitation: The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.

Access constraints: Intellectual property rights

Distance: 5 5 m

Language: English

Topic category

Biota
Environment
Oceans

Date (Revision): 2006-01-01

Code: North Sea

Begin date: 2001-01-01

End date: 2001-01-01

Supplemental Information: http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php

Reference system identifier: OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

Distribution format

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html	Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Statement: This report was prepared by scientists from the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) in August 2001 as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey provides a unique long-term dataset of plankton abundance in the North Atlantic and North Sea (Warner and Hays 1994). The survey has been running for almost 70 years, using 'ships of opportunity' to tow CPRs on regular, and incidental routes, sampling at a depth of 10 m. Each sample represents 18 km of tow and approximately 3 m3 of filtered seawater. Over 400 taxa of plankton are routinely identified by a team of taxonomists.

Metadata

File identifier: aba64100-c10a-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd XML

Metadata language: English

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2011-08-30

Metadata standard name: MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard

Metadata standard version: Version 2.3.5

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Geological Survey (BGS)	Mary Mowat	offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk	Point of contact

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