SHORT FORM Format
( also used for Plankton-Group and Regional Compilations )

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The COPEPOD-2010 "short-form" format is designed for use in spreadsheet, graphical, or statistical software.   This format is designed to contain numerically useful information, and does not contain the full methods and institutional metadata available in the "Full Format".


Each row of the "Short Form" format represents a complete "observation set" which has its own latitude/longitude, date, and sampling parameters (i.e., depth, water volume filtered, time of day).  Each observation set represents an individual measurement, such as the total wet mass of a biomass tow or a single count of a plankton species.   If a net towing event has multiple depths (0-25m, 25-50m, 50-100m) or taxonomic identifications (species a, species b, species b males, species b females), it will have many observation sets (and thus many rows).   This means that 300 rows of data in the "Short Form" format could represent 100 different "total wet mass" tows from 100 different locations, OR it could represent a single location in which 25 species were identified and counted at four discrete bottle depths (4 x 25 = 100).

If you want to reconstruct the original tow or bottle contents within a single cruise, you can do this with the RECORD-ID.   The first four digits in the RECORD-ID field are a unique identifier for each tow or bottle within a that cruise.   The second four digits count the observations measured from that net or bottle.   For example, "0001_0001" and "0001_0002" are two observations from the same net, but "0001_0001" and "0002_0001" are observations from two different nets.   [ If working with a "compilation file" (see below), you must also take into consideration the "SHP-CRUISE" identifier (otherwise "0001_0001" and "0002_0001" could be from completely different cruises!).
With individual COPEPOD data sets (i.e., the CalCOFI data set, the MARMAP data set), each individual "Short Form" data file represents an individual cruise.   A data set with five cruises will therefore have five data files.   With COPEPOD Taxonomic Compilations (i.e., "All Copepod Data", "All Diatom Data"), an individual "Short Form" data file will likely contain data from many cruises and projects.

NOTE:   All associated code tables are linked below, and are also found on this page of COPEPOD Code Tables.

Each row in the "Short Form" file contains multiple comma-separated data fields (columns).
Below are the column headings and contents for each data field:


    (01) SHP-CRUISE   -   NODC ship code + COPEPOD internal cruise identifier

    (02) YEAR   -   year of the tow or sample

    (03) MONTH   -   month of the tow or sample

    (04) DAY   -   GMT-based day of the tow or sample

    (05) TIMEgmt   -   GMT time of the tow or sample ( in decimal hours )

    (06) TIMEloc   -   LOCAL time of the tow or sample ( in decimal hours )

    (07) LATITUDE   -   latitude of the tow or sample ( + = North, - = South )

    (08) LONGITDE   -   longitude of the tow or sample ( + = East, - = West )

    (09) UPPER_Z   -   upper depth of the tow or bottle

    (10) LOWER_Z   -   lower depth of the tow or bottle

    (11) T   -   tow type   ( Vertical, Horizontal, Oblique )

    (12) GEAR   -   towing gear used ( COPEPOD Gear Table )

    (13) MESH   -   net mesh size ( in micrometers )

    (14) NMFS_PGC   -   COPEPOD Plankton Grouping Code (PGC) for the observation

    (15) ITIS_TSN   -   ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN) or COPEPOD identifier (iff < 0)

    (16) MOD   -   taxonomic modifier, such as "sp.", "spp.", or "unknown". ( COPEPOD Taxonomic Modifier Table )

    (17) LIF   -   plankton lifestage, such as "adult", "nauplius", or "veliger". ( COPEPOD Lifestage Table )

    (18) PSC   -   COPEPOD Plankton [Life] Staging Code for the observation
      0 = unspecified
      1 = adult or sub-adult
      2 = juvenile or larvae
      3 = nauplius-like 4 = eggs 5 = incomplete body fragments

    (19) SEX   -   plankton sex, if provided ( 1=male, 2=female, 3+ = COPEPOD Sex Table )

    (20) V   -   Type of (V)alue measurement in the Value fields
      c = Number Count (e.g., number of species "X")
      r = Relative Abundance code (e.g., "absent", "present", "common")
      b = Total Net-haul Biomass Value
      t = Invidual Taxa biomass or biovolume (value for that specific group or species)

    (21) Water Strained   -   volume of water sampled by bottle or flow meter ( in cubic meters ).

    (22) Original-VALUE   -   this is the original measured value ( in units provided below )

    (23) Orig-UNITS   -   this is the original units for the original value provided above

    (24) VALUE-per-volu[me]   -   standardized "per-water-volume" count or biomass measurement of the observation

    (25) UNITS   -   Units for the VALUE-per-volu[me] above ( "#/m3" for zooplankton, "#/mL" for phytoplankton )

    (26) F1   -   COPEPOD-2010 global-annual range flag for the per-volu[me] value
    (27) F2   -   COPEPOD-2010 basin-annual range flag for the per-volu[me] value
    (28) F3   -   COPEPOD-2010 basin-seasonal range flag for the per-volu[me] value
    (29) F4   -   COPEPOD-2010 basin-monthly range flag for the per-volu[me] value
    (30) VALUE-per-area   -   standardized "per-surface-area" count or biomass measurement of the observation

    These calculated "per area" values are currently in a testing state.   While the calculations appear sound,
    range flagging has not been run on these values.  
    Use these values at your own risk, with caution!.

    (31) UNITS   -   Units of the count or biomass measurement

    (32) F1   -   place-holder for future global-annual range flag for the per-area value
    (33) F2   -   place-holder for future basin-annual range flag for the per-area value
    (34) F3   -   place-holder for future basin-seasonal range flag for the per-area value
    (35) F4   -   place-holder for future basin-monthly range flag for the per-area value
    (36) SCIENTIFIC NAME -[ descriptive modifiers ]-   test description of the observation

    (37) RECORD-ID   -   COPEPOD unique record identifier

    (38) DATASET-ID   -   COPEPOD data set identifier

    (39) SHIP   -   sampling ship (vessel) identifier ( COPEPOD Ship Table )

    (40) PROJ   -   associated project identifier ( COPEPOD Project Table )

    (41) INSTITUTE   -   associated institute identifier ( COPEPOD Institute Table )

  COPEPOD
https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/copepod
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