Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1653060

• 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

These data have no specific confidentiality restrictions for users. However, users must acknowledge data sources as it is not ethical to publish data without proper attribution. Any publication or other output resulting from usage of the data should include an acknowledgment.

If the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, or if you are using Information from several Information Providers and multiple attributions are not practical in your product or application, you may consider using the following:

"Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0."

Narrative Documents

Pigments as part of the ARABESQUE project

Parameter Code Definitions

Originator Code Definitions

5 Dr R. Barlow Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Originator Protocols

Samples of one to two litres were taken from all shallow biogeochemistry CTD casts, filtered onto GF/F filters and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. The filters were extracted into 90% acetone, an aliquot was taken and injected onto a C-8 reverse phase column for high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation and quantification of some 20 chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments, using both absorbance at 440nm and fluorescence (excitation at 405nm, emission at 670nm) detection.

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.

Project Information

ARABESQUE

ARABESQUE was a multidisciplinary oceanographic research project focused on the Arabian Sea and Northwest Indian Ocean during the monsoon and intermonsoon season in 1994. Funding for ARABESQUE was provided by the Ministry of Defence/ Defence Research Agency Joint Grant TQ/10/3/2 and Amersham International as well as the Natural Environment Research Council. ARABESQUE was almost entirely field based with extensive physical, chemical and biological measurements made in the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Northwest Indian Ocean. The aim of the project was to study the upper ocean microbial biogeochemistry in the Arabian Sea. Its focus was carbon and nitrogen cycling processes linked to climate change. The project was a UK contribution to the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Process Studies of the Arabian Sea. ARABESQUE was organised by Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).

Objectives

The detailed scientific objectives of ARABESQUE were to quantify the seasonal influence of the Monsoon winds in the Arabian Sea on:

• Upwelling of nutrients and the resultant production and fate of phytoplankton, in terms of size-fractionated, new and regenerated production

• Vertical and on-shelf gradients of heterotrophic, methanogenic and denitrifying bacteria

• Distribution of chemotaxonomic pigments with links to optical properties of seawater

• The Dissolved Inorganic and Organic Carbon cycle

• Air-sea exchange of Sulphur and Nitrogen biogases including dimethyl sulphide, methylamines and methane

• Sedimentation rates and the fate of organic matter through the oxygen depleted zone

A final objective was to calibrate satellite data on ocean colour so as to map the biogeochemistry of the northwestern Indian Ocean.

Fieldwork

The fieldwork programme consisted of two cruises of RRS Discovery. Cruise 210 (from 27 August to 4 October 1994) was timed to coincide with the South West Monsoon. Cruise 212 (from 16 November to 19 December 1994) took place during the intermonsoon period through to the onset of the North East Monsoon. The fieldwork programme included three repeated sections;

• One section along the Gulf of Oman

• A section at 8°N 67°E to 14° 30N 67°E

• A major section from 8°N 67°E to the coast of Oman

Other one-off sections were also crossed in the area. Sections were covered by underway upper ocean measurements and by a total of 21 sites where CTD/water-bottle stations were taken, 14 of which were repeated.

Data Management

Data management services to the ARABESQUE project were provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council.

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: