Load National Reference Station (NRS) plankton data from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). The NRS network consists of coastal monitoring stations around Australia that collect plankton samples, typically on a monthly basis.

pr_get_NRSData(Type = "Phytoplankton", Variable = "abundance", Subset = "raw")

Arguments

Type

The data of interest: "Phytoplankton" or "Zooplankton"

Variable

Variable options are:

  • "abundance" - Cell or individual counts (available for both phytoplankton and zooplankton)

  • "biovolume" - Cell biovolume in cubic micrometres (phytoplankton only)

Subset

Data compilation level:

  • "raw" - Raw taxonomic data as identified by analysts

  • "htg" - Higher taxonomic groups (e.g., diatoms, dinoflagellates, copepods)

  • "genus" - Data aggregated to genus level

  • "species" - Data aggregated to species level

  • "copepods" - Copepod data only (zooplankton only)

Value

A dataframe with requested plankton data in wide form. Each row represents a sample and columns include metadata (station, date, depth) and taxon-specific abundance or biovolume values.

Details

NRS samples are collected from discrete depth samples using Niskin bottles (phytoplankton) or vertical net tows (zooplankton). The data are returned in wide format with taxa as columns and samples as rows.

Note: Biovolume data is only available for phytoplankton, as it is calculated from cell measurements.

See also

pr_get_CPRData() for Continuous Plankton Recorder data, pr_get_Indices() for derived ecological indices

Examples

# Get raw phytoplankton abundance data
df <- pr_get_NRSData(Type = "Phytoplankton", Variable = "abundance", Subset = "raw")

# Get zooplankton data at genus level
df <- pr_get_NRSData(Type = "Zooplankton", Variable = "abundance", Subset = "genus")

# Get phytoplankton biovolume data
df <- pr_get_NRSData(Type = "Phytoplankton", Variable = "biovolume", Subset = "species")