Zooplankton acoustics on the Firth of Forth
dataset
https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=012_Marine_Scotland_FishDAC_1592
Modern marine sampling tools offer the potential for a more holistic study of marine ecosystems in keeping with broader ecological studies and applications such as the ecosystem approach to marine management. This study focuses on a sand-bank marine ecosystem off the north east coast of Scotland. The area, known as the Wee Bankie, is an important site for severak karge populations of sea birds, the declines of which have been linked to the variable availability of the primary food source, sandeels. Acoustics surveys were conducted in the area to asses the distribution and abundance of sandeels, and in this study we use these acoustic data to examine their food source, zooplankton. Advances in understanding of acoustic properties of different zooplanktonic taxa and in the processing of acoustic data, has enabled the use of fisheries acoustic surveys data to study the distribution of mixed zooplankton communities. The acoustic surveys over the Wee Bankie are an opportunity to examine variability in zooplankton abundance and distribution over several years, extending both the spatial scale and spatial resolution of data when compared to traditional net sampling.
20150302