Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 2106840

• Metadata Summary

• Problem Reports

• Data Access Policy

• Narrative Documents

• Project Information

• Data Activity or Cruise Information

• Fixed Station Information

• BODC Quality Flags

• SeaDataNet Quality Flags

Metadata Summary

Problem Reports

No Problem Report Found in the Database

Data Access Policy

Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

You must always use the following attribution statement to acknowledge the source of the information: "Contains data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council."

Narrative Documents

Turner Designs 700 (TD-700) Laboratory Fluorometer

The TD-700 Laboratory Fluorometer is a benchtop fluorometer that is designed to detect fluorescence over the UV to red range. It uses a Quartz Halogen Lamp or a Low Pressure Mercury Vapour Lamp to excite the species of interest and fluorescence is detected by a photomultiplier tube with a detection range of 300-650 nm. A red-sensitive tube with a detection range of 185-870 nm is also available. The instrument can measure concentrations of a variety of compounds, including chlorophyll-a and fluorescent dyes, and is thus suitable for a range of applications, including chlorophyll, water quality monitoring and fluorescent tracer studies.

The fluorometer uses a filter cylinder that accommodates up to eight, 1 inch round filters; four filters for excitation and four emission filters. The sample compartment can accommodate a wide range of sample volumes and an additional Helix Microcell accessory can be added for small sample volumes where three to nine µl of assay solution will be used. Application-specific optical kits can be combined with the TD-700 to determine the fluorescence of a variety of compounds.

Samples can be averaged to improve accuracy, and the instrument can read and subtract a blank measurement from the data, further improving the accuracy. Calibration of the fluorometer can either be multi-point for data output as concentrations or single-point for data output as raw fluorescence measurements. The TD-700 has now been replaced with the Trilogy Laboratory Fluorometer.

Specifications

Further details can be found in the manufacturer's specification sheet.

Non-toxic (underway) sea water supply

A source of uncontaminated near-surface (commonly 3 to 7 m) seawater pumped continuously to shipboard laboratories on research vessels. There is typically a temperature sensor near the intake (known as the hull temperature) to provide measurements that are as close as possible to the ambient water temperature. The flow from the supply is typically directed through continuously logged sensors such as a thermosalinograph and a fluorometer. Water samples are often collected from the non-toxic supply. The system is also referred to as the underway supply.

Chlorophyll a measurements from discrete CTD bottles and non-toxic supply collected on RRS James Cook cruise 32 (JC032)

Originator's Protocol for Data Acquisition and Analysis

Sampling strategy

Samples were acquired for the analysis of as many parameters as possible at one CTD station per day. To supplement the volumes of water available, samples were also collected from the ships underway non-toxic seawater supply (inlet depth 5 m) at each station sampled. CTD samples were collected from depth using a stainless steel CTD frame fitted with a Sea-Bird SBE 32, twenty-four way carousel (s/n 32-19817-0243) equipped with 20, ten litre OTE external spring water samplers (rosette positions 1-20) and 4, twenty litre OTE external spring water samplers (rosette positions 21-24).

Data Acquisition and Analysis

Methods are identical to and as described in detail in Moore et al. (2009). Original and additional references include; Moore et al. (2008) and Welshmeyer et al. (1994).

The following methods have been taken from the cruise report. Water samples (250 ml) were collected from both the CTD bottles and the underway non-toxic intake surface water supply and were filtered onto 25 mm glass fibre filters (Fisherbrand, equivalent to Whatman GF/F). Filters were then placed in vials and extracted in 8 ml 90% acetone for 24 hours in a darkened fridge. Total chlorophyll a was then measured with a TD-700 Turner Designs fluorometer following the procedure of Welschmeyer (1994) which minimises interference by chlorophyll b. The fluorometer was calibrated with dilutions of a solution of pure chlorophyll a (Sigma, UK) in 90% acetone before JC031. Blanks of 90% acetone were analysed daily. Additionally, two bulk samples with differing concentrations of chlorophyll were filtered onto multiple filters then stored at -80°C. Sub-sets of these samples were then thawed and analysed throughout the cruise at 1-2 week intervals to check for drift in the instrument response. A number of these filters, alongside duplicate profiles from a selection of stations were also be returned to the lab (frozen at -80°C) for analysis, as a second overall check on the accuracy of the calibration. The limit of detection calculated as three standard deviations of the blank was 0.003 mg m^-3 and differences measured between duplicate samples were <0.001 mg m^-3 in all cases, both of which were satisfactory given the measured chlorophyll concentrations ranging from 0.006 and 3.09 mg m^-3.

References Cited

Moore, C.M., Mills, M.M., Langlois, R., Milne, A., Achterberg, E.P., La Roche, J. and Geider, R.J., 2008. Relative influence of nitrogen and phosphorus availability on phytoplankton physiology and productivity in the oligotrophic sub-tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography 53, 291-305.

Moore, C.M., Mills, M.M., Arrigo, K.R., Berman-Frank, I., Bopp, L., Boyd, P.W., Galbraith, E.D., Geider, R.J., Guieu, C., Jaccard, S. L., Jickells, T.D., La Roche, J., Lenton, T.M., Mahowald, N.M., Marañón, E., Marinov, I., Moore, J.K., Nakatsuka, T., Oschlies, A. Saito, M.A., Thingstad, T.F., Tsuda, A. and Ulloa, O., 2009. Processes and patterns of oceanic nutrient limitation. Nature Geoscience 2, 867 - 871.

Welshmeyer, N. A., 1994. Fluorometric analysis of chlorophylla in the presence of chlorophyll-b and pheopigments. Limnology and Oceanography. 39, 1985-1992.

BODC Data Processing Procedures

All data were received in one Excel file and were loaded into the BODC database using established procedures. There were several samples were more than one data value was provided, therefore these were averaged before loading. The following table shows how the variables were mapped to the appropriate BODC parameter codes:

Data Quality Report

None. BODC assessment.

Problem Report

None. BODC assessment.

Project Information

Oceans 2025 - The NERC Marine Centres' Strategic Research Programme 2007-2012

Who funds the programme?

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds the Oceans 2025 programme, which was originally planned in the context of NERC's 2002-2007 strategy and later realigned to NERC's subsequent strategy (Next Generation Science for Planet Earth; NERC 2007).

Who is involved in the programme?

The Oceans 2025 programme was designed by and is to be implemented through seven leading UK marine centres. The marine centres work together in coordination and are also supported by cooperation and input from government bodies, universities and other partners. The seven marine centres are:

• National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS)
• Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
• Marine Biological Association (MBA)
• Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Marine Science (SAHFOS)
• Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL)
• Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
• Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

Oceans2025 provides funding to three national marine facilities, which provide services to the wider UK marine community, in addition to the Oceans 2025 community. These facilities are:

• British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), hosted at POL
• Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), hosted at POL
• Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP), hosted at SAMS

The NERC-run Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative (SOFI) provides additional support to the programme by funding additional research projects and studentships that closely complement the Oceans 2025 programme, primarily through universities.

What is the programme about?

Oceans 2025 sets out to address some key challenges that face the UK as a result of a changing marine environment. The research funded through the programme sets out to increase understanding of the size, nature and impacts of these changes, with the aim to:

• improve knowledge of how the seas behave, not just now but in the future;
• help assess what that might mean for the Earth system and for society;
• assist in developing sustainable solutions for the management of marine resources for future generations;
• enhance the research capabilities and facilities available for UK marine science.

In order to address these aims there are nine science themes supported by the Oceans 2025 programme:

• Climate, circulation and sea level (Theme 1)
• Marine biogeochemical cycles (Theme 2)
• Shelf and coastal processes (Theme 3)
• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Theme 4)
• Continental margins and deep ocean (Theme 5)
• Sustainable marine resources (Theme 6)
• Technology development (Theme 8)
• Next generation ocean prediction (Theme 9)
• Integration of sustained observations in the marine environment (Theme 10)

In the original programme proposal there was a theme on health and human impacts (Theme 7). The elements of this Theme have subsequently been included in Themes 3 and 9.

When is the programme active?

The programme started in April 2007 with funding for 5 years.

Brief summary of the programme fieldwork/data

Programme fieldwork and data collection are to be achieved through:

• physical, biological and chemical parameters sampling throughout the North and South Atlantic during collaborative research cruises aboard NERC's research vessels RRS Discovery, RRS James Cook and RRS James Clark Ross;
• the Continuous Plankton Recorder being deployed by SAHFOS in the North Atlantic and North Pacific on 'ships of opportunity';
• physical parameters measured and relayed in near real-time by fixed moorings and ARGO floats;
• coastal and shelf sea observatory data (Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory (LBCO) and Western Channel Observatory (WCO)) using the RV Prince Madog and RV Quest.

The data is to be fed into models for validation and future projections. Greater detail can be found in the Theme documents.

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Cruise

Complete Cruise Metadata Report is available here

Fixed Station Information

No Fixed Station Information held for the Series

BODC Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle:

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags

The following single character qualifying flags may be associated with one or more individual parameters with a data cycle: