Sample Archive


CPR plankton sample storage archive

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The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey has been sampling in the North Atlantic and the North Sea since the 1930s. The survey has an archive store in Plymouth, UK, of formalin-preserved CPR samples collected in the North Sea and North Atlantic dating continuously back to the 1960s (in some cases the 1950s). These are 'on-silk' samples - i.e. the plankton is retained within a silk 'sandwich' - and they are preserved in buffered formalin (buffered with Borax). The mesh size of the silk used is ca 280 microns and over 400 taxa have been recorded. Maps showing the geographical extent of the survey from 1948 to 1993 were published by Warner and Hays in 1994 (Progress in Oceanography, Vol.34, 237-256). The archive is stored on mobile storage shelving for easy location of samples. Any researcher wishing to obtain access to these samples should write to, or email, the Director, SAHFOS, for further details. Depending on the amount of time involved in sorting out samples, there may be a small charge to cover the cost of staff time.