IGMETS and Onward: International Efforts in Plankton and Ecosystems Time Series Research

Over the past two decades, several international working groups, such as the ICES Working Group on Zooplankton Ecology (WGZE), the SCOR Global Comparisons and Zooplankton Time Series working group (WG125), the ICES Working Group on Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology (WGPME), the SCOR Global Patterns of Phytoplankton Dynamics in Coastal Ecosystems working group (WG137), the IOC-UNESCO working group to investigate Climate Change and Global Trends of Phytoplankton in the Ocean (TrendsPO) and the International Group for Marine Ecological Time Series (IGMETS) have produced groundbreaking analysis of biological (i.e. phytoplankton and zooplankton) and biogeochemical time-series data. These analyses have revealed changes across our ocean that can only be glimpsed through these repeated, high quality measurements. These initiatives have also brought together groups of researchers around the world, building a community of data and knowledge sharing.

This presentation summarizes the ongoing progress, findings, publications, and future work of these international, collaborative efforts, and investigates some of the major gaps and drawbacks that have been identified through these types of data compilations.

Information and links to these various time-series working groups, and the time series themselves, are available through the online IGMETS Metabase (http://igmets.net/metabase).