Occasional Publications of the Marine Biological Association No. 24

The Russell Cycle. An update and review of trends in zooplankton and fish larvae off Plymouth 1924-2009

[Added September 2011]

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Full reference:
Coombs, S. and Halliday, N. (2011) The Russell Cycle. An update and review of trends in zooplankton and fish larvae off Plymouth 1924-2009. Occasional Publications. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (24) 27p.

Regular plankton sampling off Plymouth by the Marine Biological Association (MBA) has been carried out from the early 1900s. Much of the sample analysis and description of the results was carried out by Sir Frederick Russell and Professor Alan Southward (AJS), the latter having completed the organisation and transfer of the paper records to digital files.

The current authors have transferred the main data files of AJS on zooplankton and fish larvae to the MBA long-term database (including various editing and checking against original analysis records and published data) together with adding the data for 2002-2009.

In this report the updated time-series are reviewed in the context of earlier work, particularly with respect to the Russell Cycle. It is not intended as an exhaustive analysis. Brief details of the sampling and comments on data processing are given in an appendix.