Imaging and oceanographic data from a thin layer of phytoplankton and surrounding zooplankton abundances on July 24, 2016

On July 24, 2016, a thin layer of phytoplankton was detected using the In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS). The data were collected to describe the oceanographic influences on plankton distributions. Water samples were taken to describe the phytoplankton community inside and outside of the layer and were imaged with a FlowCAM for identifications. The ISIIS data described the abundance and distribution of zooplankton, while also collecting oceanographic data (e.g., temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, PAR, and chlorophyll-a fluorescence). Bottle incubations of water were used to determine rates of primary production and microzooplankton grazing inside and outside of the layer. The dataset also includes a readme file detailing the method used to calculate the rate of grazing by microzooplankton, the chlorophyll-a concentration, and apparently growth rate of phytoplankton. In additional, R code is provided to plot the physical distribution of marine snow, phytoplankton growth rate and community composition, and physical properties/phytoplankton counts.