MOCNESS profile, ZooScan imagery, and plankton specimen identification data collected on board R/V F.G. Walton Smith (WS3) Cruise WS1017 for station B249D MOCNESS nets 5 through 8 in the northern Gulf of Mexico on 2010-09-30 (NCEI Accession 0250823)

The data in this package is part of a larger dataset collection including data from six MOCNESS stations from this cruise. Each accession in this collection contains a subset of the MOCNESS data that are split into nets 1 - 4 and nets 5 - 8 respectively to facilitate data download in more granular segments of this dataset. Station names containing a “D” were collected during the day and stations denoted with a “N” were collected at night.

Parameters in the cruise metadata are CruiseName [Survey vessel]; CruiseNo [Number of NRDA survey on above vessel]; StationID Station name (B# stations are from the NOAA SEAMAP Grid); DayNightSample [Time of day associated with the sample. Day (D) is 1 hour after sunrise to 1 hour before sunset. Night (N) is 1 hr post sunset to 1 hr pre sunrise]; DeepShallowSample [General depths targeted by MOCNESS tow (not individual nets). Shallow (S) = 0-160 m; Deep (D) = 0-1500+ m]; DeploymentID [Unique identifier for each MOCNESS tow]; Field.Sample.ID [Unique identifier for each depth discrete net sample within the MOCNESS tow]; SampDateStart [Date sample was started (net entered the water/opened), M/DD/YYYY]; SampDateEnd [Date sample was ended (net exited the water/closed), M/DD/YYYY]; TowStartTime [Time of depth discrete net opening]; TowEndTime [Time of depth discrete net closing]; UpperDepth [Minimum depth sampled by net (m)]; LowerDepth [Maximum depth sampled by net (m)]; Volume [Volume of water filtered through the net (m3)]; StartLat [Start latitude of the tow]; StartLon [Start longitude of the tow]; EndLat [End latitude of the tow]; EndLon [End longitude of the tow]; Latitude [Latitude of the station (target coordinates, not actual sampling coordinates)]; Longitude [Longitude of the station (target coordinates, not actual sampling coordinates)]; NetNo [Net number (when applicable).

The majority of zooplankton image and density data were acquired from the Sutor lab at Louisiana State University (LSU). Samples not scanned during the original NRDA effort were scanned by the Robinson lab at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The densities in this dataset were calculated from the ZooSCAN image data. Density was calculated as the number of individuals times the reciprocal of aliquot) divided by volume filtered. The dataset authors have curated the deep-pelagic plankton data for analysis and were not part of the sample collection effort. Original zooplankton data were received as image data and Excel spreadsheets with density calculations for samples processed during the NRDA effort. The image dataset includes neuston zooplankton samples in addition to the MOCNESS zooplankton samples. However, the dataset authors cannot confirm that all neuston samples taken during the cruise are represented in this dataset. Scans that were not separated into vignettes at the time of receipt were not processed by the dataset authors, but the files necessary for processing are included. Samples processed by the Robinson lab were sorted manually in Ecotaxa and do not have "Learning Set" PID process files. Other PID process files produced by ZooSCAN are available in the PID process folder for each sample. All files for a given sample are stored in a folder labeled with the NRDA sample ID. Background scans are stored in the Zooscan_back folder; Full sample scans and corresponding raw and work files are stored in the Zooscan_scan, Zooscan_scan/_raw, and Zooscan_scan/_work folders, respectively. Vignettes sorted with PID are stored in taxa-specific folders in the PID_process/sorted_vignettes folder. Likewise, vignettes sorted in Ecotaxa are stored in taxa-specific folders in the Ecotaxa_sorted_vignettes folder.|1m MOCNESS, 9 nets (0-8), 0.333 mm mesh. Net 0 serves as an archive sample and has not been processed, and thus does not appear in this dataset. Scans were performed and processed on Hydroptics Zooscan and accompanying software.