The SCAR Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey has produced a report on the Status and Trends of Southern Ocean Zooplankton.
Zooplankton are a crucial link in the Antarctic marine ecosystem and changes in the zooplankton are likely to have substantial flow on effects through the rest of the food web. This report has collated the current knowledge of the status of zooplankton, e.g. what species are known, community structure, biogeography, based on the analysis of the SO-CPR dataset, and 69 publications in peer-reviewed research papers, chapters, atlases, and reviews. It brings all that information together, highlights achievements over nearly 30 years, and includes some new analyses identifying trends (seasonal or long term) in relation to changes in abundance, shifts in distribution, and community composition. It is hoped that this will be a living report that will include updated information as the SO-CPR datasets continues to grow and be analysed.
The report contributes to the efforts of SCAR’s research programmes AntEco and AnT-ERA, and hopefully will be a companion to the ACCE report and updates. It also contributes to other reports such as the Ecological Status Report produced by the Global Alliance of CPR Surveys (GACS).
Report on the Status and Trends of Southern Ocean Zooplankton based on the SCAR Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey
Edited by Kunio T. Takahashi and Graham W. Hosie
September 2020