This amounts to almost 170000 samples, with around 200 more samples added per month. The presence of every planktonic entity identified on each sample is stored in the database, and there are almost 2 million plankton records in total. The database also contains supportive information such as tow locations, times and dates, ship details, a taxon catalogue and analyst details. Over 400 entities have been identified on CPR samples, and the 'abundance' of each entity on each sample can be extracted from the database. Some are identified to species level, some to genus level, and some at a higher taxanomic level.
Some entities are groups of other entities.
A complete list is kept in the database and can be found in the Plankton List page. Data can be extracted from user defined areas, over specified periods, for selected entities. For example, all samples taken from the Dogger Bank area in the North Sea during March April and May since 1946 could be extracted from the database, and the 'abundance' of selected diatom species on each sample could be listed. Alternatively, an average value, number of samples, and standard deviation per year per month, could be retrieved. The data can be exported to statistical and presentaion packages in many popular formats such as text, rich text, comma separated, MS Excel, MS Access, MS Word, Fox Pro, Dbase, Lotus and to SQL compliant databases.