Load picophytoplankton abundance data measured by flow cytometry. Picophytoplankton are tiny photosynthetic cells (0.2-2 µm) that are important primary producers in oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) waters.

pr_get_NRSPico()

Value

A dataframe in long format with picophytoplankton data including:

  • StationCode, StationName - Station identifiers

  • SampleTime_Local - Local sampling date and time

  • SampleDepth_m - Sampling depth (numeric, in metres)

  • Parameters - Cell type (Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, or Picoeukaryotes)

  • Values - Cell abundance (cells/mL)

Details

The function retrieves abundance data for three groups of picophytoplankton:

  • Prochlorococcus_cellsmL - Prochlorococcus abundance (cells/mL). A tiny cyanobacterium found in warm, nutrient-poor tropical and subtropical waters. Typically absent or in very low numbers in temperate Australian waters.

  • Synechococcus_cellsmL - Synechococcus abundance (cells/mL). A cyanobacterium found throughout Australian waters, more tolerant of cooler temperatures and higher nutrients than Prochlorococcus.

  • Picoeukaryotes_cellsmL - Picoeukaryotic algae abundance (cells/mL). Small eukaryotic phytoplankton including prasinophytes and small diatoms.

Quality control flags are applied using pr_apply_Flags(). Water column (WC) samples are excluded. A small constant is added to zero values to allow log transformations in plotting.

See also

pr_get_NRSMicro() for broader microbial community data, pr_get_NRSEnvContour() to format data for contour plots, pr_plot_NRSEnvContour() for visualisation

Examples

df <- pr_get_NRSPico()

# Examine which stations have picophytoplankton data
table(df$StationCode, df$Parameters)
#>      
#>       Picoeukaryotes_cellsmL Prochlorococcus_cellsmL Synechococcus_cellsmL
#>   DAR                    465                     465                   465
#>   YON                    676                     676                   676
#>   NIN                      0                       0                     0
#>   NSI                    864                     864                   864
#>   ROT                    913                     913                   913
#>   ESP                      0                       0                     0
#>   PHB                    790                     790                   790
#>   KAI                    343                     343                   343
#>   VBM                     44                      44                    44
#>   MAI                    934                     934                   934

# Filter for Synechococcus at North Stradbroke Island
df_syn <- df %>%
  dplyr::filter(Parameters == "Synechococcus_cellsmL", StationCode == "NSI")