Long-Term Observation Program (LTOP) Seward Line ZOOPLANKTON A data, Gulf of Alaska (1997-2009)

The North Pacific appears to have undergone a "regime shift" within the past decade to a bimodal state that is not typical of previously studied regimes. Regime shifts are often expressed as fundamental shifts in ecosystem structure and function, such as the 1976 regime shift that resulted in a change from a shrimp dominated fisheries to one dominated by pollock, salmon and halibut. Given the potential impacts of climate on these fisheries, it has been deemed advisable to maintain a time series of basic oceanographic conditions on the shelf and monitor the state of the ecosystem. The resulting information is necessary to assess ongoing climate impacts on the ecosystem and attendant fisheries and for developing and validating numerical ecosystem models to aid in prediction of potential impacts of long-term climate change. The current data set is part of a multidisciplinary time-series along the Gulf of Alaska's Seward Line supported by North Pacific Research Board during through 2009, these data also include data from the GLOBEC monitoring program which ran from 1997 through 2004

These data are assessment of species composition, abundance, distribution and biomass of zooplankton within the Gulf of Alaska using three different nets (CalVET, MOCNESS, MultiNet) and two different tow techniques. Data were collected by Dr. K.O. Coyle of the Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks for the Gulf of Alaska LTOP (Long Term Observation Project) funded by various funders. The area of coverage is the Seward line in the Gulf of Alaska during 1997-2009. This project is ongoing.