Fernández de Puelles, María Luz; Sarmiento-Lezcano, Airam Nauzet; Hernández-León, Santiago (2026): Mesozooplancton abundance from surface to mesopelagic zone during April 2015 in the tropical-subtropical Atlantic Ocean (MAFIA) [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.992716
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Published: 2026-03-03 • DOI registered: 2026-04-01
Abstract:
This dataset contains values mesozooplankton abundance groups collected during the MAFIA cruise from 31st of March to the 29th of April 2015, from Salvador de Bahía (Brazil) to the Canary Islands (Spain). Mesozooplankton were sampled using the Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS-1 m²) zooplankton net with a 0.2 mm mesh size and with several nets for collecting samples from 8 different depth layers (0–100 m, separated in two layers depending on the physical-biological scenario, 100–200, 200–300, 300–400, 400–500, 500–600, and 600–800 m depth layers). Collected specimens MOCNESS-1 samples were preserved in 5% buffered formalin, and specimens were sorted out later. All individuals were counted with the exception of Protozoa due to the mesh size used was not suitable to retrieve a representative sample (Boltovskoy, 1981). Most abundant mesozooplankton groups were studied and identified until dominant groups. All data were standardized to number of individuals (#/m³) by layer.
Keyword(s):
Related to:
Fernández de Puelles, María Luz; Gazá, Magdalena; Santandreu, Mar; Hernández-León, Santiago (2023): Diel vertical migration of copepods in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography, 219, 103147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103147
References:
Boltovskoy, Demetrio (1981): Atlas del zooplankton del Atlántico Sudoccidental y métodos de trabajo con el zooplancton marino [in Spanish]. In: Ed. D. Boltovskoy (Mar de la Plata, Argentina: INIDEP Publisher, 933
Project(s):
Funding:
Horizon 2020 (H2020), grant/award no. 817578: Tropical and South Atlantic climate-based marine ecosystem predictions for sustainable management
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN), grant/award no. CTM2012-39587-C04: Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN), grant/award no. PID2020-118118RB-100: DisEntangling Seasonality of Active Carbon Flux In The Ocean (DESAFIO)
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 7.447348 * Median Longitude: -24.259300 * South-bound Latitude: -10.081300 * West-bound Longitude: -31.885100 * North-bound Latitude: 25.346400 * East-bound Longitude: -17.420600
Date/Time Start: 2015-04-07T14:05:00 * Date/Time End: 2015-04-28T02:34:00
Minimum Elevation: -5208.0 m * Maximum Elevation: -3038.0 m
Event(s):
MAFIA_MOC_2D * Latitude Start: -9.975500 * Longitude Start: -31.826800 * Latitude End: -9.942100 * Longitude End: -31.789700 * Date/Time Start: 2015-04-07T14:05:00 * Date/Time End: 2015-04-07T15:10:00 * Elevation: -5199.0 m * Mesh size: 0.2 mm * Location: Central Atlantic * Campaign: MAFIA * Basis: Hespérides * Method/Device: MOCNESS opening/closing plankton net 1 sqm (MOC1)
MAFIA_MOC_2N * Latitude Start: -10.081300 * Longitude Start: -31.885100 * Latitude End: -10.039400 * Longitude End: -31.857100 * Date/Time Start: 2015-04-08T03:38:00 * Date/Time End: 2015-04-08T04:56:00 * Elevation: -3930.0 m * Mesh size: 0.2 mm * Location: Central Atlantic * Campaign: MAFIA * Basis: Hespérides * Method/Device: MOCNESS opening/closing plankton net 1 sqm (MOC1)
MAFIA_MOC_3D * Latitude Start: -6.505100 * Longitude Start: -30.052100 * Latitude End: -6.544300 * Longitude End: -30.106700 * Date/Time Start: 2015-04-09T16:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2015-04-09T17:35:00 * Elevation: -5061.0 m * Mesh size: 0.2 mm * Location: Central Atlantic * Campaign: MAFIA * Basis: Hespérides * Method/Device: MOCNESS opening/closing plankton net 1 sqm (MOC1)
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Event label | Event | ||||
| 2 | Latitude of event | Latitude | ||||
| 3 | Longitude of event | Longitude | ||||
| 4 | Date/Time of event | Date/Time | ||||
| 5 | Elevation of event | Elevation | m | |||
| 6 | Cruise/expedition | Expedition | ||||
| 7 | Station label | Station | ||||
| 8 | Sample comment | Sample comment | ||||
| 9 | Depth, water, top/minimum | Depth water top | m | Estimated from net sonde. | ||
| 10 | Depth, water, bottom/maximum | Depth water bot | m | Estimated from net sonde. | ||
| 11 | Polygonatum verticillatum | Pop.v | # | Mean | ||
| 12 | Volume | Vol | m3 | The volume of water filtered by each net was measured using an electronic flowmeter. | ||
| 13 | Day-Night comment | Day/Night | Sampling during the day or nightime. | |||
| 14 | Taxon/taxa | Taxa | Visual identification (VID) | Taxon/Taxa and comments | ||
| 15 | Kingdom | Kingdom | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 16 | Phylum | Phylum | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 17 | Class | Class | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 18 | Order | Order | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 19 | Family | Family | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 20 | Genus | Genus | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 21 | Species | Species | Visual identification (VID) | |||
| 22 | Taxon/taxa, unique identification | Taxa UID | Reference in WoRMS (WoRMS) | |||
| 23 | Taxon/taxa, unique identification (Semantic URI) | Taxa UID (Semantic URI) | Reference in WoRMS (WoRMS) | |||
| 24 | Taxon/taxa, unique identification (URI) | Taxa UID (URI) | Reference in WoRMS (WoRMS) | |||
| 25 | Mesozooplankton | Mesozoopl | #/m3 | Standardized value |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Enhanced curation (CurationLevelC)
Size:
22638 data points
Download Data
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