Pelagic Invertebrate
Collection
One of the world's preeminent collections of marine zooplankton.
Our Collections
The Pelagic Invertebrate Collection houses more than 140,000 whole zooplankton samples, including the remarkable CalCOFI zooplankton time series, which has surveyed the California Current since 1949.
View all databases Loan PolicyRecent Publications
Szesciorka, AR, LR Balance, A Širović, A Rice, MD Ohman, JA Hildebrand and PJS Franks, 2020. Timing is everything: Drivers of interannual variability in blue whale migration. Scientific Reports 10(1):9 doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64855-y
Van Noord JE, 2020. Dynamic spawning patterns in the California market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) inferred through paralarval observation in the Southern California Bight, 2012-2019. Marine Ecology. doi.org/10.1111/maec.12598.
Education & Outreach
The collection supports scientific research by providing specimens for studies on systematics, evolution, molecular genetics, ecology, population dynamics, climate change and other topics. Specimens are available for examination at Scripps and for loan to researchers at recognized institutions.
Related Research Programs
Education
The oceanographic collections, including the Pelagic Invertebrate Collection, also support research at Scripps in addition to undergraduate and graduate courses through the University of California San Diego.
Support the Collections
Friends of the Collections support the largest and most complete university-based oceanographic collection in the world, comprised of millions of biological and geological marine specimens. This library of the ocean’s history is a resource to researchers and students all over the world.