Plankton Monitoring Project – Data Collection

Plankton Monitoring Project

Important links:

• Plankton Identification Field Guide
• Plankton Monitoring Google Form

Recording the Data

1. Watch the video to analyze the plankton sample, looking for the presence or absence of nine specific target species: copepod, coscinodiscus, radiolarium, flat worms, crab megalops larva, fish larva or fish egg, sea star larva, pseudo-nitzschia, and alexandrium.  Some of these are common, and others are of a particular interest to resource managers.
2. When you identify one of the target species, note its presence in the Plankton Monitoring Google Form.
3. If the species is not present in the sample, mark it as absent in the Plankton Monitoring Google Form.
4. If you identify another plankton species other than the nine target species, record its name and presence on the Google Form as well.

Plankton monitoring video from 4/12/20

Plankton monitoring video from 11/9/20

Plankton monitoring video from 2/3/21

Submitting your Data

Once you have finished watching the video, use our Plankton Monitoring Google Form to submit your data. If you would like to continue contributing and submit data for data collected on a different day, feel free to go to our list of past data collection days.