 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science History of the Continuous Plankton Recorder Database D. Stevens and P.C. Reid

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Introduction Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey The development of the CPR database Recent and future development

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science The CPR Survey Monitor the near-surface plankton of the North Atlantic and North Sea on a monthly basis Year to year changes in abundance Seasonal cycles of species Geographical distributions Effects of fisheries and climate change

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science CPR routes map

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science How data are collected The CPR is a plankton sampling instrument designed to be towed from merchant ships on their normal sailings Alister Hardy used the first prototype to sample krill in the Antarctic on the Discovery cruises of

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science The CPR

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science How data are analysed Phytoplankton x450 magnification ~1/8000 of sample Zooplankton traverse (<2mm) x48 magnification ~1/40th of sample Zooplankton eye count (>2mm) removed and counted

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science How data are STORED Before computers The first computerised database Geographical effects Updated computer languages Current system

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Before Computers All calculations had to be carried out by hand Sample positions Cutting points Local time Before

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Before Computers (2) Data were stored on paper for each tow This data would then be transposed onto cards for each species Sample No Species name Tow record Sample No Tow name Species card Before 1969

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Before Computers (3) This task was very time consuming. The analysis team of more than 12 spent 1/3rd of their time entering data. Process was in need of speeding up Before 1969

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science The first computerised database Based at Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre (ERCC) Prior to this Principle Component Analysis had been carried out using a DEUCE electronic computer Data processed using a KDF 9 (32Kb)

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Card Reader Operator's ConsoleTape Drives Pictures from photogallery/pages/ htm KDF 9

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science The first computerised database Based at Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre (ERCC) Prior to this Principle Component Analysis had been carried out using a DEUCE electronic computer Data processed using a KDF 9 (32Kb) ALGOrithmic Language (ALGOL)

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science External Changes ALGOL no longer supported by the ERCC Programs transfer to IMP and Fortran (IV)G

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Relocation Move to Plymouth, UK PDP 11 (16-bit) Programs rewritten into BASIC Image from:

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science PDP11 Source:

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Hardware changes CPR database was moved to a GEC 41/

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Disc Drive (70Mb) Tape Reader

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Further Changes Out with the old...

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science IBM 93/70..in with the new

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Rapid Changes The database moved home again to RS 6000 –This home was short lived due to problems networking the RS 6000 Now all data processing was programmed in Fortran

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Development using Fortran The database was stored on a Solaris 2.4 Processing was carried out using an IBM PC

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science ORACLE First relational database contain CPR data Due to cost of maintaining ORACLE system was dropped

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science ACCESS - Current system Relational database developed in ACCESS User friendly interface

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science ACCESS - Current system

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Further development Sample processing transferred to Microsoft Access

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Consistency Strategy to ensure all systems are stored on current media. –Some programs can be lost because the media on which that have been stored has become obsolete Ensure same algorithms are applied to data

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Quality Control Computers are not always a good thing. Basic QC programme used to check data and advice given. Analysis sheets are checked by experienced analysts

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Data Policy SAHFOS operates an open access data policy Data requests made to the Data Manager. Policy statement available on the web site –

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science CPR Plankton Atlas

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science DATA AVAILABLE The CPR database contains information for – samples ( ) 4.7 million miles towed – positive plankton entries plankton entries CPR bibliography contains –775 references. –

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Web Development

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science Future development Web based development –increase ease of access to the database Expansion to include further environmental variables. Plankton Atlas available on CD or the Web CPR Browser available on CD Future

 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science History of the Continuous Plankton Recorder Database D. Stevens and P.C. Reid