Continuous Plankton Recorder

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey is one of the longest running marine biological monitoring programmes in the world. Started in 1931 by Sir Alister Hardy and Sir Cyril Lucas,^[1] the Survey provides marine scientists and policy-makers with measures of plankton communities, coupled with ocean physical, biological and chemical observations, on a pan-oceanic scale. The Survey is a globally recognised leader on the impacts of environmental change on the health of our oceans.

Today the CPR Survey is operated by the Marine Biological Association (MBA), located in Plymouth, UK. Uniquely, the CPR Survey's methods of sampling and plankton analysis remain unchanged since 1948, providing a spatio-temporally comprehensive > 70 year record of marine plankton dynamics.