NUI Galway Cruise Stations 2008

38 sample stations including CTD, Zooplankton Net and Phytoplankton Net taken on board the RV Celtic Voyager in September 2008 during the Bright Sparks Award survey. A large instrument package called a CTD is the standard workhorse of oceanographers for acquiring water column profiles. It is called a CTD because as a minimum it measures electrical Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (pressure). Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. Phytoplankton are the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key factor of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems.