IMOS Australian Plankton Survey Newsletter - 2016 The Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey & National Reference Stations Directors report One of the key breakthroughs this past year has been Modelling), which is striving for greater assessment of establishing a strong relationship with the shipping zooplankton in models. There is generally very little company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL). We rely assessment of zooplankton in models and getting this on the good will of shipping companies to tow our trophic level right is critical for correctly estimating the Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs) free-of-charge. conversion of primary production into fish. As part of Previously we have had to use several different vessels ZOOM, Felicity has worked closely with the research from different companies to sample routes from Brisbane community to assemble nearly 15,000 zooplankton to Perth, but now we have the one vessel the Wilhelmsen biomass observations, which will be used to create a Tonsberg doing the entire route. We have also installed a gridded product for modellers (see page 9). The ZOOM towing point to a second WWL vessel Wallenius Salome so Task Team has also written a perspectives paper, led that we have a back-up if the MV Tonsberg changes adeptly by Dr Jason Everett, that seeks to bridge the gap routes. Well done Tonka and Frank for making this between modellers and observationalists by describing happen! different types of models for observationalists, and by describing various types of zooplankton data for modellers. To keep up with the hundreds of samples coming in each The paper also provides a blueprint for model assessment month and to drive down our cost per observation, we of zooplankton, through data wrangling that transforms have streamlined many of our procedures, including our observations to be more similar to model output, and counting protocol. To ensure there was minimal effect on through the use of observation models that transform data quality, we conducted an extensive simulation model outputs to be more like observations. ZOOM will analysis which showed almost no change in abundance build on the relationships forged and the methods estimates and very little change in diversity estimates developed in its first year to incorporate more plankton in derived from CPR and NRS samples. These changes have models through several case studies around Australia. dropped our counting time by 20% with virtually no change in the data. I would like to acknowledge the hard The IMOS Plankton Laboratory has continued to support work of the Team – Frank, Claire, Anita, Mark, Julian, several collaborators this past year. Dr Micheli Duarte de Felicity and Ruth – over the past year to catch up with Paula Costa has helped with identification of fish larvae for much of our counting backlog, especially through the the National Ichthyoplankton Monitoring and Observing redundancy turmoil at CSIRO. I would also like to thank (NIMO) at the IMOS NRS, Boer Bao helped develop rapid IMOS for their continued support and we will endeavor to counting protocols for the cyanobacterium Trichodesmium keep producing high quality, species-level plankton data as from net samples at the IMOS NRS, Leslie Braberry and affordably as possible. Chloe Jahakodey have used ZOOSCAN to measure zooplankton size spectra for IMOS NRS and these data will Over the past year we have also contributed to IMOS soon be posted on the AODN, Jose Gutierrez investigated ZOOM Task Team (Zooplankton Ocean Observations and the impact of ENSO on plankton from the tropical Pacific (see page 19), Sarah Pausina has investigated the impact of floods on plankton in SE Queensland, Sophie Sabarot developed Table of Contents plankton indicators using IMOS zooplankton data (see The Team 3 page 21), and Chloe Jahakodey showed that climate change is likely to lead to smaller zooplankton in the future Sample Map 4 (see page . Thanks to all the Team but especially to Julian NRS Sample Progress 5 for supporting the students so ably! CPR Sample Progress 6 I would also like to highlight the production of the Shipping Update 6-7 Australian Phytoplankton database, which collates 3,765,032 presence records from around Australia over Investigator Trip 8 the past 60 years (see page 11). There are 46 authors from Brisbane Lab Update 9 23 organizations including universities, government research agencies, state and local councils and private Zooplankton Biomass Database 9 companies. A great way to bring the community together. Hobart Lab Update 10 Well done Claire! Phytoplankton Database 11 Finally, I’d like to highlight the growing number of Training 12 ecosystem assessments both nationally (e.g. State of Environment) and globally (IPCC Assessment Reports, Plankton Art Exhibition 13-14 IPBES, UN World Ocean Assessments) that are being How do big, tropical filter-feeders cope with a sparse undertaken and the role that plankton can play. Plankton and patchy prey environment? 15-16 provide important baselines of the productivity in our oceans and provide sensitive indicators of environmental Zooplankton responses to increasing sea surface health and climate change. There is a great opportunity for temperatures in the south-eastern Australia global IMOS and the plankton time series data it produces – now marine hotspot 17-18 approaching 10 years in length – to contribute to these What has been the ecological response of the oceanic assessments. This will be an exciting space for the IMOS zooplankton from the Colombian Pacific Basin to Plankton Team to contribute to this year and for years to climate variability between 2003-2012 19 come. Lantern fish from the Indian Ocean and their Best wishes planktonic diet 20 Anthony Application of the Community Temperature Index on marine copepods 21 Visit the AusCPR website at Trichodesmium Project 22 http://imos.org.au/auscpr.html Global Biodiversity Patterns 23 Visit the NRS website at http://imos.org.au/anmnnrs.html Masterclass of Zooplankton 23 IMOS Australian Plankton Survey Leader From the plankton lab to A-Star 24 Professor Anthony J. Richardson Hitch-hikers Guide to the Oceans 25-26 Phone: +61 07 3833 5958 [email protected] Newsletter - Anita Slotwinski [email protected] Further team contact details can be located at http://imos.org.au/cpr_staff.html Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook for up to date national and international plankton news, plankton images and videos, free educational resources and stunning plankton posters! Search IMOS Australian Plankton Survey or go to https://www.facebook.com/ imosaustralianplanktonsurvey Anthony Richardson Frank Coman Claire Davies Julian Uribe-Palomino Position: Leader IMOS Australian Position: Deputy Leader Position: Plankton Biologist Position: Plankton Biologist Plankton Survey Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland My role involves liaising with ships that My job includes identifying and Queensland I manage the CPR project, I help secure tow the CPR, the management of the counting CPR and NRS samples. I also My role involves analyses of funding, guide research directions, North Stradbroke Island NRS sampling, manage the NRS and CPR databases, plankton samples, operational develop relationships with other zooplankton sorting of IMOS NRS and am a boat driver for SE NRS tasks, data collection and plankton surveys, and support and samples, and plankton analysis of CPR sampling. My research interests include quality control and contributing develop CPR staff. My research interests samples. I am interested in plankton plankton ecology, climate change to publications and are marine climate change ecology, biology and ecology, climate change impacts and the feeding presentations. I am interested in plankton ecology, pelagic ecosystem impacts on marine ecosystems and dynamics between zooplankton and biological oceanography, dynamics, and ecosystem modelling. In aquaculture. In my spare time I play megafauna. In my spare time I spend as environmental modelling, my spare time I love to spend time with sport, enjoy fishing, camping and much time in and out of the water as biogeography, remote sensing my family. photographing Australian wildlife. possible. and GIS. Anita Slotwinski Mark Tonks Felicity McEnnulty Ruth Eriksen Position: Plankton Biologist Position: Plankton Biologist Position: Plankton Biologist Position: Plankton Biologist Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Location: CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Location: CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania Location CSIRO, Hobart, Queensland I analyse CPR & NRS samples. I also My tasks include counting CPR & NRS I analyse CPR and NRS samples, am I analyse CPR and NRS samples, and manage the project website, samples, and management of project involved in data collation and quality am involved in data collation and communication materials, and the procedure manuals. I have worked for control and contributing to quality control and contributing to zooplankton species reference collection. CSIRO for 19 years and spend 60% of publications and presentations. My publications and presentations. My My research interests are in marine my time working on plankton. My research interests include plankton research interests are phytoplankton plankton ecology, environmental change research interests include plankton ecology, deep-sea invertebrates, ecology and taxonomy, and species response and ecology, bycatch sustainability and fish introduced marine