PACE Validation BATS plankton

The data provided by this project is the abundance and taxonomic information for the 5-300 µm planktonic community captured via imaging with a FlowCam or Zooscan. We additionally analyze a duplicate subset of water samples from the same cast as BATS HPLC depths (0-250 m), sending these pigment samples to GSFC. Target depths for both the niskin-based FlowCam and HPLC samples include surface, 40, 80, 120, 160, and 200. The FlowCam was run in both trigger and automated mode at 10X for each bottle sample to enumerate and classify photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms. In addition, the standard Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Site phytoplankton net tows (0-175 mwo, 120-150 m depth, 35 µm mesh net) were imaged. Images were taken using automatic mode at 2x, 4x, and 10x with the FlowCam, while two size fractions (>1000, <1000) were captured with a Zooscan to ensure enumeration of the larger phytoplankton taxonomic groups.