Zooplankton Biomass on the West Florida Shelf, July 2010 – August 2014

Zooplankton have high temporal and spatial variability. Therefore, they need to be assessed before oil impact and regularly thereafter, to interpret what changes are causally related to oil spills. We surveyed plankton using bongo net tows and the USF SIPPER imaging system to evaluate the variation in plankton abundance on the west Florida shelf and the northern Gulf of Mexico. Seasonal CTD, chlorophyll, nutrient, and zooplankton abundance data from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and the west Florida shelf. Developed new algorithms for data mining SIPPER (Shadow Imaging Particle Profiler and Evaluation Recorder) camera particle imaging data.