Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool (PLET)

The data we use to construct indicators and identify changes in plankton communities can be downloaded from the Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool (PLET).

The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool brings together disparate European
plankton datasets into a central database from which it extracts abundance time-series of plankton functional groups, called “lifeforms”, according to shared biological traits. This tool has been designed to make complex plankton datasets accessible and meaningful for policy, public interest, and scientific discovery.

Lifeform time series generated with the Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently inform plankton and food web indicators for the UK’s Marine Strategy, the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) biodiversity assessments.

The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently integrates 155 000 samples, containing over 44 million plankton records, from nine different plankton datasets within UK and European seas, collected between 1924 and 2017.

Additional datasets can be added, and time series can be updated.