Zooplankton taxa abundance from Windermere North Basin and Esthwaite Water, UK, 2005-2009

https://doi.org/10.5285/39bed192-423a-4bbf-9b97-7d3da8aab445

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By accessing or using this dataset, you agree to the terms of the relevant licence agreement(s). You will ensure that this dataset is cited in any publication that describes research in which the data have been used.

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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This dataset contains zooplankton taxa density sampled fortnightly from Windermere North Basin and Esthwaite Water in Cumbria, England. All data are from January 2005 to December 2009. The data available to download comprise the density of all zooplankton taxa identified in the samples in individuals per m2. Zooplankton were sampled from a boat at a marked location (buoy) using a plankton net (250µm), preserved, and counted in the laboratory, to determine the density of identified zooplankton taxa (individual per m2) within each sample.

This dataset was created as part of an ongoing long-term monitoring program of Lakes within the English Lake District, which has collected a range of environmental and biological measurements since 1945.

Publication date: 2025-07-02

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View numbers valid from 02 July 2025 Download numbers valid from 02 July 2025 (information prior to this was not collected)

Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Spatial information

Study area

Spatial representation type

Tabular (text)

Spatial reference system

WGS 84

Temporal information

Temporal extent

2005-01-01 to 2009-12-01

Temporal resolution

fortnightly

Provenance & quality

Zooplankton were sampled via a plankton net with a mesh size of 250 µm, with one vertical tow from 14 m depth for Esthwaite Water and 40 m for Windermere North Basin from a boat at a marked location (buoy). Samples were preserved immediately with ethanol before transported back to the laboratory where samples were rinsed and preserved with 4% formaldehyde. Zooplankton samples were counted by one person per lake on a Wild Heerbrugg M8 stereo microscope. If zooplankton numbers were high, subsamples were counted by adding the zooplankton sample to a larger, known volume of distilled water and subsampling with a 5 ml Stemple pipette until the counts of most species (except very rare taxa) were in double figures. Wherever possible, zooplankton were determined to species level, however for some taxa this was not possible, i.e. Chydorus spp., Harpacticoid copepods and Rhynchotalona spp.

Please note that the data presented here are raw data that have not yet been quality controlled and calibrated. However, data have been checked visually.

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:

Thackeray, S.J.; Mackay, E.B.; Feuchtmayr, H. (2025). Zooplankton taxa abundance from Windermere North Basin and Esthwaite Water, UK, 2005-2009. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/39bed192-423a-4bbf-9b97-7d3da8aab445

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