The Zooplankton Index is a concise way to visualize the variability in biomass for select taxonomic groups in Northern Washington and Puget Sound regions. This indicator shows the change in annual average biomass of each zooplankton group, calculated from z-scores. Z-scores depict how far the biomass differs from the annual mean. Values closer to zero are near average, while values farther from zero show a greater difference from the average in any particular year. While these values do not indicate “good” or “bad” outcomes for zooplankton, they are useful in determining how these communities change over spatio-temporal scales.
Zooplankton Index reports as z-scores from 2014-2022 for various taxa groups at two regions, Northern Washington (NWA) and Puget Sound (PS). Colors indicate whether the annual average biomass is 1-3 standard deviations (SD) above (positive) or below (negative) the mean. Values are relative within the calculated means of each region and taxon.
No targets are currently set for this indicator.