Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1629698

• 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

Niskin Bottle

The Niskin bottle is a device used by oceanographers to collect subsurface seawater samples. It is a plastic bottle with caps and rubber seals at each end and is deployed with the caps held open, allowing free-flushing of the bottle as it moves through the water column.

Standard Niskin

The standard version of the bottle includes a plastic-coated metal spring or elastic cord running through the interior of the bottle that joins the two caps, and the caps are held open against the spring by plastic lanyards. When the bottle reaches the desired depth the lanyards are released by a pressure-actuated switch, command signal or messenger weight and the caps are forced shut and sealed, trapping the seawater sample.

Lever Action Niskin

The Lever Action Niskin Bottle differs from the standard version, in that the caps are held open during deployment by externally mounted stainless steel springs rather than an internal spring or cord. Lever Action Niskins are recommended for applications where a completely clear sample chamber is critical or for use in deep cold water.

Clean Sampling

A modified version of the standard Niskin bottle has been developed for clean sampling. This is teflon-coated and uses a latex cord to close the caps rather than a metal spring. The clean version of the Levered Action Niskin bottle is also teflon-coated and uses epoxy covered springs in place of the stainless steel springs. These bottles are specifically designed to minimise metal contamination when sampling trace metals.

Deployment

Bottles may be deployed singly clamped to a wire or in groups of up to 48 on a rosette. Standard bottles and Lever Action bottles have a capacity between 1.7 and 30 L. Reversing thermometers may be attached to a spring-loaded disk that rotates through 180° on bottle closure.

AMT20 (JC053) Micro-molar nutrient measurements from CTD bottle samples

Originator's Protocol for Data Acquisition and Analysis

Water samples were taken from the Sea-Bird CTD rosette system. They were sub-sampled into acid-clean 60 ml HDPE (nalgene) sample bottles. Analysis for nutrients was completed within 1-2 hours of sampling in all cases. Clean handling techniques were employed to avoid contamination of the samples.

The main nutrient analyser was a 5-channel Bran and Luebbe AAIII segmented flow autoanalyser. The analytical chemical methodologies used were according to Brewer and Riley (1965) for nitrate, Grasshoff (1976) for nitrite and Kirkwood (1989) for phosphate and silicate.

References Cited

Brewer P.G. and Riley J.P., 1965. The automatic determination of nitrate in sea water. Deep-Sea Research, 12, 765-772.

Grasshoff K., 1976. Methods of seawater analysis. Verlag Chemie, Weiheim: 317 pp.

Kirkwood D.S., 1989. Simultaneous determination of selected nutrients in seawater. ICES CM1989/C:29, 12pp.

Instrumentation Description

5-channel Bran and Luebbe AAIII segmented flow autoanalyser

BODC Data Processing Procedures

Data were submitted to BODC in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format and saved to the BODC archive with reference PML120103. Sample metadata provided (Cast number and sample depth) were checked against information held in the database, there was one discrepancy. Cast 40 had a depth of 15 m provided but no bottle was fired at this depth for this cast. The sample was loaded against a depth of 20 m instead.

No unit conversions were necessary as the units provided matched the units for the parameter codes in the BODC Parameter Dictionary. The dataset was loaded to the database following BODC protocols.

A parameter mapping table is provided below;

Data Quality Report

Data provided were quality checked by the originator and flagged accordingly. The silicate data for many of the samples were considered suspect by the originator and not submitted to BODC for this reason.

Measurement precision information from data originators: Samples in the database with a flag of "<" had concentrations below the specified detection limits.

Problem Report

Not applicable for this dataset.

Project Information

Oceans 2025 Theme 10, Sustained Observation Activity 1: The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT)

The Atlantic Meridional Transect has been operational since 1995 and through the Oceans 2025 programme secures funding for a further five cruises during the period 2007-2012. The AMT programme began in 1995 utilising the passage of the RRS James Clark Ross between the UK and the Falkland Islands southwards in September and northwards in April each year. Prior to Oceans 2025 the AMT programme has completed 18 cruises following this transect in the Atlantic Ocean. This sustained observing system aims to provide basin-scale understanding of the distribution of planktonic communities, their nutrient turnover and biogenic export in the context of hydrographic and biogeochemical provinces of the North and South Atlantic Oceans.

The Atlantic Meridional Transect Programme is an open ocean in situ observing system that will:

• give early warning of any fundamental change in Atlantic ecosystem functionng
• improve forecasts of the future ocean state and associated socio-economic impacts
• provide a "contextual" logistical and scientific infrastructure for independently-funded national and international open ocean biogeochemical and ecological research.

The specific objectives are:

• To collect hydrographic, chemical, ecological and optical data on transects between the UK and the Falkland Islands
• To quantify the nature and causes of ecological and biogeochemical variability in planktonic ecosystems
• To assess the effects of variability in planktonic ecosystems on biogenic export and on air-sea exchange of radiatively active gases

The measurements taken and experiments carried out on the AMT cruises will be closely linked to Themes 2 and 5. The planned cruise track also allows for the AMT data to be used in providing spatial context to the Sustained Observation Activities at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Ocean Observatory (SO2) and the Western Channel Observatory (SO10).

More detailed information on this Work Package is available at pages 6 - 9 of the official Oceans 2025 Theme 10 document: Oceans 2025 Theme 10

Weblink: http://www.oceans2025.org/

Data Activity or Cruise Information

Data Activity

BODC Sample Metadata Report for JC053_CTD_CTD48s

Please note:the supplied parameters may not have been sampled from all the bottle firings described in the table above. Cross-match the Sample Reference Number above against the SAMPRFNM value in the data file to identify the relevant metadata.

Related Data Activity activities are detailed in Appendix 1

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:

Appendix 1: JC053_CTD_CTD48s

Related series for this Data Activity are presented in the table below. Further information can be found by following the appropriate links.

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