Zooplankton and ichthyoplankton abundance and distribution in the North Atlantic collected by the Ecosystem Monitoring (EcoMon) Project from 1977-02-13 to 2023-11-15 (NCEI Accession 0187513)

This dataset contains zooplankton and ichthyoplankton distribution and abundance, sea surface and bottom water temperatures and salinities collected during the shelf-wide fisheries surveys for the Ecosystem Monitoring Program (EcoMon) from 1977-02-13 to 2023-11-15. The surveys are conducted 6-7 times per year over the continental shelf from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, using NOAA research ships or charter vessels. The Cape Hatteras to Cape Sable area is divided into four regions, and 30 randomly selected stations are targeted for sampling from each region. Along with the data collected from each cruise, this archival package also contains the GIS shapefiles that comprise the strata used to randomly select plankton stations in the EcoMon study area. These strata comprise 4 regions: Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southern New England, Georges Bank, and Gulf of Maine and will help the user better understand the sampling methodology.

The EcoMon investigation monitors the fishery-relevant components of the Northeast Shelf ecosystem, to characterize the baseline conditions and to determine the effects of biological and physical processes on the recruitment of Northeast shelf fishes. Data from this program have supported numerous analyses documenting the seasonal and interannual variability in the distribution and abundance of the dominant zooplankton taxa on the northeast continental shelf.