The Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey – Monitoring plankton in the Nordic Sea

This is chapter 5 of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report 2018 (https://sios-svalbard.org/SESS_Issue1).

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey monitors plankton in the waters around Svalbard and south to northern Norway. Within this region of the Nordic Seas, the CPR survey adds to and complements other monitoring methods by providing a broader spatial and temporal perspective. Most other surveys are coastal or are sporadically sampled through time. The CPR survey also adds value by providing multi-decadal data at the Atlantic basin scale that can help disentangle and interpret changes observed in the Nordic Seas and help predict changes over the next coming decades. For example, regions that currently support Arctic ecosystems will instead support sub-Arctic systems within the next 10 to 20 years (if not sooner). The biological signals of change we see further south in Atlantic sub-polar systems now can be used to detect the early warning signs of change in the Arctic.

To develop the observation system further, the CPR survey currently works closely with Norwegian scientists to coordinate its sampling on board “ships of opportunity”. These are often cargo vessels that regularly ply the same route. They are outfitted with instruments that automatically and routinely collect a range of data on oceanographic parameters.