Claire H. Davies,¹ Amelia J. Armstrong,² Mark Baird,¹ Frank Coman,³ Steven Edgar,³ Daniel Gaughan,⁴ Jack Greenwood,² Felipe Gusmão,⁵ Natasha Henschke,^6,7 J. Anthony Koslow,^8,9 Sophie C. Leterme,¹⁰ A. David McKinnon,^11,12 Margaret Miller,³ Sarah Pausina,^2,3 Julian Uribe Palomino,³ Ruben-Lee Roennfeldt,¹³ Peter Rothlisberg,³ Anita Slotwinski,³ Joanna Strzelecki,⁸ Iain M. Suthers,⁶ Kerrie M. Swadling,¹⁴ Sam Talbot,¹¹ Mark Tonks,³ David H. Tranter,¹ Jock W. Young,¹ and Anthony J. Richardson^3,15

1 CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia

2 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072 Australia

3 CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, EcoSciences Precinct, GPO Box 2583, Dutton Park, Queensland 4001 Australia

4 Department of Fisheries, Government of Western Australia, P.O. Box 20, North Beach, Western Australia 6920 Australia

5 Instituto do Mar - UNIFESP, Av. Alm. Saldanha da Gama, 89 - Ponta da Praia, Santos, CEP: 11030-400, SP, Brazil

6 Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Building 22, Chowder Bay Road, Mosman, New South Wales 2088 Australia

7 Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052 Australia

8 CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, Underwood Avenue, Floreat, Western Australia 6014 Australia

9 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 USA

10 School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University GPO BOX 2100, Adelaide SA5001 Australia

11 Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB No 3,Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland 4810 Australia.

12 School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland Australia

13 School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, PO Box 423, Warrnambool VIC 3280

14 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, TAS 7001, Australia

15 Centre for Applications in Natural Resource Mathematics (CARM), School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia

zooplankton_abundance_data.csv (MD5: 9d7672c32a4d2fe805cc91f081877e1b)

zooplankton_metadata.csv (MD5: 806bcd4109502706633c1bf61d2f3f66)

Zooplankton are the key trophic link between primary producers and fish in pelagic ecosystems. Historically, there are few zooplankton time series in Australia, with no data sets longer than two years prior to 2008. Here we compile 98 676 abundance records of more than 1000 zooplankton taxa from unpublished research cruises, student projects, published literature, and the recent integrated marine observing system (IMOS). This data set covers the entire coastal and shelf region of Australia and dates back to 1938. Most records are for copepods, but there are also data for other taxa such as decapods, chaetognaths, thaliaceans, appendicularians, and cladocerans. Metadata are provided for each record, including dates, coordinates, and information on mesh size and sampling methods. To facilitate analysis across the multiple data sets, we have updated the species names according to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and converted units to abundance per cubic meter. These data will be valuable for studies of biodiversity, biogeography, impacts of climate change, and ecosystem health. We encourage researchers holding additional Australian zooplankton data to contact us and contribute their data to the data set so we can periodically publish updates.

Key words: biogeography; continuous plankton recorder; copepod; diversity; integrated marine observing system (IMOS); plankton; species richness; zooplankton abundance.