Zooplankton as Indicators Group (ZIG)

ZIG was formed in November 2019 (Huntsville, Ontario, Canada) at the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network GLEON all-hands meeting in Huntsville, Canada with three co-leads (Steph Figary, Michael Meyer, and Warren Currie) and has since grown to a team of over 100 aquatic scientists from around the world interested in understanding the uses of zooplankton as indicators in lakes and reservoirs. This project has several goals:

• Develop a global dataset: Our goal is to develop a global zooplankton dataset to test which aspects of zooplankton community structure are the most sensitive, and widely applicable, indicators of environmental change. ZIG’s data call to GLEON can be found here. After harmonizing all of the submitted datasets using github, ZIG will publish a data product with the data that can be made public.
• Publish a main synthesis paper: The main goal of ZIG is to determine the reliability of existing zooplankton indicators (e.g., % calanoids) on a global scale using existing data from the GLEON network. This will be written and submitted as the ‘main synthesis paper’ that all participants are welcome to contribute to.
• Launch follow-up questions: There are many additional questions that the global dataset can be used to answer about zooplankton as indicators. After the first two goals of the project are met, ZIG’s focus will shift to the follow up questions that members have outlined. We see the potential for these collaborations to continue well into the future.

This project is still in the "green" phase and is still accepting data and project ideas. More information about the project can be found here.