2017 Microbial Ecology of the Surface Ocean - SCOPE, Water Column Data

This dataset consists of samples taken at various depths in the water column from niskin bottles attached to a CTD rosette on the MESO-SCOPE cruise in 2017. Mesoscale eddies affect the variability of ocean ecosystems through different dynamics, but an exhaustive description of their influence on the plankton community is still missing, partly due to the complex physical-biological interaction taking place inside the eddies. One of the most well known effects of mesoscale eddies is the vertical displacement of water in their interior due to the geostrophic balance with the eddy circular motion. Since eddies of different polarity displace water in opposite directions, their impact on pelagic ecosystems is postulated to be very different. Based on this information, one of the objectives of the MESO-SCOPE expedition was to study a mesoscale dipole, i.e. a system composed of adjacent cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies. The MESO-SCOPE (Microbial Ecology of the Surface Ocean - Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) expedition collected oceanographic observations in the region north of the Hawaiian Islands with the aim of identifying the impact of mesoscale eddies on the ecosystem of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The expedition was funded by the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) and hosted on the research vessel Kilo Moana between June 26 and July 15 2017, leaving from and returning to the port of Honolulu.  Scientists from eight countries, representing eleven SCOPE laboratories, participated in the MESO-SCOPE expedition and contributed their expertise in research areas as ocean biogeochemistry, molecular biology, bio-optics, plankton taxonomy, microbiology, and ecology.