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western Barents Sea Associated Investigators: Related Time Series: The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) Monitoring Programme samples two standard transects in the Barents Sea: the Fugløya-Bjørnøya transect (seven stations) and the Vardø Nord transect (eight stations). The Fugløya-Bjørnøya transect is split into two sections: North (15) and South (16) , which are each sampled three to six times a year with WP-2 nets from 100 m and/or bottom to the surface. The data in this report are from bottom-to-surface hauls (100-0 m). Water temperatures along the Fugløya-Bjørnøya transect range from 4 C to 9 C, with the seasonal high in August and the seasonal low in February. Peak zooplankton biomass is found from June to August in the northern section and from May to July in the southern section. Zooplankton biomass has been steadily decreasing over the duration of the time-series, most noticeably in the northern section. This is also seen in the weakening (reduced magnitude) of the peak biomass period in the northern section and to a lesser extent in the southern section. Although water temperatures have been increasing since 1975 in both sections (Standard Long-term Comparison Plot), long-term water temperatures along the transect reveal that these temperatures are currently at, or very slightly above, the 100-year maximum observed in the 1960s (Standard Long-term Comparison Plot, red dashed line). |