Tools

PlanktonToolbox

The Plankton Toolbox is a free tool for aquatic scientists, and others, working with environmental monitoring related to phyto- and zooplankton. It is available for MacOS and Windows. A Linux verion will be produced upon request.

Features include:

Plankton counter - use the PlanktonToolbox as a counting tool by the microscope
Consistent use of names and taxonomic hierachy based on World Register of Marine Species
Cell abundance, cells L^-1
Automatically calculate biomass based on cell volumes from HELCOM-PEG and NOMP. Biomass in µg C L^-1 or in biovolume mm³ L^-1
Imports phyto- or zooplankton data in .txt and .xlsx files in different formats (configurable)
Work with data on abundance, biovolume and carbon content
Data screening - quality control of data
Aggregate data, e.g. from species level to class level
Plotting tools
Statistics (in early development)
Export data in .txt or .xlsx for further analyses or plotting

The software is available as version 1.4.0 for Windows and MacOS. The new release includes an update of the counting module and several minor tweaks. In addition the NOMP 2022 biovolume list, which includes information from the HELCOM-PEG 2022 biovolume list and addtional taxa from the Skagerrak and the North Sea, is included in Plankton Toolbox 1.4.0. The list of potentially harmful taxa has been updated accorrding to the IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Micro Algae.

Notes for Windows 10 users:
You will need to allow the software to run on your PC When starting the software the first time you will get a warning.

Notes for Mac users:
Place the software in your App folder. The folders "toolbox_data" and "toolbox_counter" can be placed in your home folder, e.g. in "Mike". You will need to allow the software to run on your Mac. When starting the software the first time you will get a warning. To avoid this ctrl-click on the software the first time you run it and click on open. You need to do this only once. Alternatively: go to Settings -> Security and allow Plankton Toolbox to start. In MacOS 13 (currently 13.1) addtional security was added. Contact nordicmicroalgae@smhi.se if you have problems starting Plankton Toolbox.

Reference

Current version

Karlson, B., Andreasson, A., Johansen, M., Karlberg, M., Skjevik, A.-T., 2022. Plankton Toolbox – open source software making it easier to work with plankton data, version 1.4.0, accessed at http://nordicmicroalgae.org/tools

Publication in 2015

Karlson, B., Andreasson, A., Johansen, M., Mohlin, M., Skjevik, A.-T., Strömberg, P., 2015. Plankton Toolbox – open source software making it easier to work with plankton data, In: MacKenzie, A.L. (Ed.), 16th International Conference on Harmful Algae. Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand and the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSHA), Wellington, New Zealand, pp. 194-197.

Downloads

Plankton Toolbox version 1.4.0
Updated 31 January 2023 (the previous release was 22 Dec. 2022)

Mac - download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf

List of taxa with biovolumes, carbon content and trophic type
(A Microsoft Excel file compressed in a zip-archive. The file is also part of the download of Plankton Toolbox)
nomp_taxa_biovolumes and_carbon_2022

Plankton Toolbox version 1.3.4
Mac - download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf-file

Plankton Toolbox version 1.3.3
Mac - download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf file

Plankton Toolbox version 1.3.2
Mac -download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf-file

Plankton Toolbox version 1.3.1
Mac - download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf-file

Plankton Toolbox version 1.3.0
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf-file

Plankton Toolbox version 1.2.1
Mac - download
Windows - download
Users guide - download the pdf-file