Database of Marine Larval Fish Assemblages in Australian temperate and subtropical waters (1983 - 2016)

Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned | Statement: All larval fishes were sampled by plankton nets towed from a variety of vessels. Nets were either towed obliquely (across a range of depths), or at constant near-surface depths. Upon net retrieval of this single ‘tow’, all plankton were fixed immediately in ~4% formalin in seawater (and often buffered with sodium borate or sodium carbonate to avoid sample degradation). The volume sampled by the net for each tow was determined, typically using a flowmeter attached to the mouth of the net, which was used to standardise larval fish counts to volume of water sampled. See data paper for information on the larval fish identification. | Statement: Project_ID; Project_name: Unique database code to identify the project (Table 1) Tow_ID: A unique identifier for each tow, which is the Project_ID plus the numerical data record for that project; e.g. P1_1 is the first record in project P1 Sample: A project-specific identifier for each record Date: Date a tow was taken, yyyy-mm-dd Time_local: The local time a tow was taken, hh24:mm Day_Night: Whether the tow occurred in the day or night – only used when Time_local was unavailable Latitude; Longitude: Geographic coordinates for each tow (usually start of tow) Location: A project-specific identifier of feature of interest (e.g. oceanographic feature) Volume_m3: The volume of a tow (m3) Replicate: Identifies when tows were done consecutively to act specifically as replicates Cruise_ID: A project-specific identifier of different cruises Station: A project-specific identifier of a specific location sampled multiple times Gear_depth_m: The maximum depth tows were deployed to, or a range of depths sampled; surface tows have a depth=0 Gear_mesh_um: The type of net, and the mesh dimensions (μm); summarised in Table 1 Bathym_m: The bottom depth at location of the tow (m) Temperature_C: Surface (< 10 m) water temperature (°C) at approx.. the same time as the tow; measured with a CTD Salinity: Surface (< 10 m) salinity (PSU) at approx. the same time as the tow; measured with a CTD | Credit Australian Fisheries Management Authority | Credit CSIRO Marine National Facility | Credit Australian Research Council (ARC) | Credit Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) | Larval fishes are a useful metric of marine ecosystem state and change, as well as species-specific patterns in phenology. The high level of taxonomic expertise required to identify larval fishes to species level,