Table 2.

Cyst abundance in GOM subregions, 1997, 2004-2011. Comparisons are given between each of these years and the mean cyst abundance for each subregion for 2004-2011^* (expressed as the % change relative to the mean cyst abundance for that subregion and layer). All cyst abundance values given as 10¹⁶ cysts.

	0-1 cm
	WGOM cysts	% change WGOM	EGOM cysts	% change EGOM	WGOM +EGOM cysts	% change WGOM +EGOM	BOF cysts	% change BOF	total WGOM+ EGOM+ BOF cysts	% change total
1997	2.4	17	0.6	17	3.0	17	1.0	52	4.0	20
2004	17.2	119	4.4	122	21.6	120	2.3	119	23.9	120
2005	6.0	42	2.8	79	8.8	49	2.1	109	10.9	55
2006	5.0	35	2.2	61	7.2	40	1.1	58	8.3	42
2007	24.5	170	5.6	156	30.1	167	1.9	98	32.0	160
2008	7.9	55	3.4	94	11.3	63	1.1	58	12.4	62
2009	28.5	198	4.6	129	33.1	184	5.1	262	38.2	192
2010	11.2	77	5.1	144	16.3	91	3.0	153	19.3	97
2011	7.0	49	2.3	65	9.4	52	0.9	48	10.3	52
Mean	14.4	100	3.6	100	18.0	100	1.9	100	19.9	100

	1-3 cm**
1997	5.8	17	2.0	16	7.8	17	1.6	28	9.4	18
2004	19.1	57	11.7	93	30.8	66	4.0	70	34.8	67
2005	37.3	110	23.6	188	60.9	131	11.4	199	72.3	139
2006	19.1	56	9.6	76	28.6	62	4.7	82	33.3	64
2007	26.1	77	12.2	97	38.3	83	4.7	82	43.0	82
2008	26.7	79	12.1	96	38.8	84	4.0	71	42.9	82
2009	64.4	190	17.5	139	81.9	177	6.5	113	88.4	170
2010	35.3	104	14.9	118	50.1	108	7.6	133	57.8	111
2011	25.3	75	8.0	63	33.3	72	4.2	74	37.5	72
Mean	33.8	100	12.6	100	46.4	100	5.7	100	52.1	100

	0-3 cm
1997	8.3	17	2.5	15	10.8	17	2.6	34	13.4	19
2004	36.3	75	16.0	99	52.4	81	6.3	82	58.7	81
2005	43.3	90	26.4	164	69.7	108	13.5	176	83.2	115
2006	24.1	50	11.7	73	35.8	56	5.8	76	41.6	58
2007	50.6	105	17.8	110	68.3	106	6.6	86	75.0	104
2008	34.6	72	15.5	96	50.1	78	5.2	67	55.3	77
2009	92.9	193	22.1	137	115.0	179	11.5	151	126.6	176
2010	46.5	96	20.0	124	66.5	103	10.6	138	77.1	107
2011	32.3	67	10.3	64	42.6	66	5.2	68	47.8	66
Mean	48.2	100	16.2	100	64.4	100	7.7	100	72.1	100

^*1997 is not included in the calculated mean because the sampling domain was significantly smaller than the other years.

^**Note: values for 1-3cm abundance have been multiplied by 2 to yield the total cysts in a 2 cm thick layer

The mean area occupied by the cyst survey = 2.79 × 10¹⁴ cm² for the WGOM, 1.86 × 10¹⁴ cm² for the EGOM and 0.43 × 10¹⁴ cm² for the BOF.