Coral ecosystem connectivity from Pulley Ridge to the Florida Keys: light trap invertebrate zooplankton abundance data from 2012-08-10 to 2014-08-27 (NCEI Accession 0228806)

This dataset comprises invertebrate zooplankton abundance data from light traps deployed in Pulley Ridge, Dry Tortugas, and the lower Florida Keys (American Shoal and Looe Key). Replicate light traps were deployed overnight from small boats in August of 2012, 2013, and 2014. Deployments were, ~5–6 m off the seafloor at all collection sites during the third quarter to new moon lunar periods. Simultaneous sampling across all sites was not possible. Larval fishes were removed from the samples and the remaining zooplankton were split using a Folsom Plankton Splitter or a box splitter. Raw counts of zooplankton were multiplied by the split denominator to determine zooplankton/trap. A total of two replicates for 19 nights of light trap deployments were identified for 29 major taxonomic zooplankton groups.