ZOOVIS-DEEP high-resolution zooplankton and marine snow surveys, Gulf of Mexico, April 2012

In April, 2012 a research cruise was conducted to continue to monitor the microbial and planktonic communities and to assess rates of particle flux and the rates of removal of PAHs from the system via this process and accumulation of PAHs in bottom sediments. The recently constructed ZOOVIS-DEEP camera system was used to quantify the vertical distribution, abundance, and taxonomic composition of zooplankton between 0–1500 m. The self-contained camera system is capable of documenting the composition of plankton and particles in the water column within a large image volume (300 ml) at high rates (15 Hz). This information will provide data on the taxonomic composition of meso and macrozooplankton, particularly fragile, transparent, gelatinous organisms such as medusae and ctenophores, which are not effectively quantified by traditional samplers such as nets. This dataset includes data from the ZOOVIS-DEEP.