Community composition of reef associated copepods in the lagoon of Davies Reef, Great Barrier Reef

Created 24/06/2025

Updated 24/06/2025

Reef associated zooplankton were sampled at a fixed site in the north of the lagoon of Davies Reef in June, September and December 1989 and April 1990. Three sampling techniques were used to sample the zooplankton community on each occasion. Analysis of samples focussed on the copepod community. Triplicate vertical hauls of a 150 cm long, 50 cm diameter, 64 µm plankton net were made through the full water column and also for the top 6m only. Samples were taken over a 24 hour period (2 tidal cycles) at times corresponding to low tide, mid-tide (rising), high tide and mid-tide (falling). After each set of net hauls, Niskin casts were made at 3, 6 and 9 m depth and near the bottom. Subsamples of the water were filtered through a 35 µm filter for determination of the number of nauplii and additional subsamples were taken for chlorophyll analysis. Swarming copepod species, not well sampled using plankton nets, were observed using SCUBA and samples were collected and identified when swarms were abundant.In the laboratory, the preserved net samples were subsampled. Counts were made of adult copepods, identified to species and sex where possible, and juveniles identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. This research was undertaken to describe diurnal, tidal and seasonal changes in the reef associated copepod community in the water column in the lagoon at Davies Reef.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Community composition of reef associated copepods in the lagoon of Davies Reef, Great Barrier Reef
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/8d95ac93-8c15-4b1a-b868-06211e2b4d68
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
reception@aims.gov.au
Reference Period 20/11/2017
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    147.655673,
    -18.814011
  ],
  "type": "Point"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Community composition of reef associated copepods in the lagoon of Davies Reef, Great Barrier Reef". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/community-composition-of-reef-associated-copepods-in-the-lagoon-of-davies-reef-great-barrier-re1