In terms of marine ecosystems and climate change issues, tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean are among the most poorly represented in the World Ocean Database (National Oceanographic Data Center, Washington D.C.). However, the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (Ukraine) holds extensive data archives on the region from numerous former Soviet Union expeditions carried out from 1959 to 1989. These archives include over 4,000 biological samples collected on 19 major expeditions, the vast majority of which are enumerated to the species level for phytoplankton, zooplankton, and mesopelagic fish. Those samples are accompanied by detailed physical and chemical measurements.
The project will allow a team of US, Ukrainian, and Russian scientists to produce, for broad dissemination, an inventory and database on the above expeditions. The database will enable full accessibility, viewing, sorting, and exporting of information by oceanographic station, location, or taxa. The project participants will further explore the spatial-temporal variability of tropical pelagic communities using the compiled database as a primary source for guiding ongoing field research. Resulting data products, including abundance, biomass, and species diversity indices will be used to elucidate general patterns linking community structure in the tropical Atlantic and atmospheric/physical influences. The present study will substantially advance understanding of species diversity in the tropical ocean by providing a large, detailed database for poorly studied regions. Future research on biodiversity and potential climate-change influences in the Atlantic Ocean will benefit greatly from the detailed taxonomic analyses of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish species that will comprise a major portion of the database.
