Report on the Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Standards Workshop 2018: SCAR SO-CPR Database Expert Group

The “Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey Standards Workshop” was held at the Australian Antarctic Division on 20−23 November 2018. This biennial workshop was last held in 2016. The participants were technicians from the three nations (Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) leading the project. The purpose of the workshop was to ensure that high standards of data quality were being maintained, in terms of species identification and methodology, among the main analysts of the SO-CPR survey, and to discuss future training methods and a future roadmap for the SO-CPR program. A range of topics was discussed including: taxonomic resolution issues (particularly for northern species of copepods and euphausiids), laboratory methods (setting of the CPR cassette, microplastic counting rules), training methods (SO-CPR processing manual and zooplankton counting rule book), data handling for database input, and future standards workshops, including comprehensive training workshops for emerging SO-CPR survey partners. We discussed and agreed on a future roadmap for making a SO-CPR processing manual and zooplankton counting rule book, for the purposes of current and new technician training.