Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 1852009

• 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

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.

Dissolved oxygen sampling from the non-toxic supply as part of the North Sea Project

Document History

Converted from CDROM documentation.

Sampling strategy and methodology

Samples were taken from the outflow of the perspex tube housing the oxygen electrodes. This was fed from the general non-toxic supply via a small constant head device at a flow rate of 2 litres per minute controlled by a constriction device on the outflow tubing.

Three replicate samples were drawn into 60 ml borosilicate glass stoppered bottles and 0.5ml of each Winkler reagent added using BCD multi-addition pipettes. The reagents were prepared according to the recommendations of Carrit and Carpenter (1966). After mixing, the oxygen bottles were stored under fresh water until analysed.

Analysis was undertaken on board using the manual photometric endpoint detector method described by Bryan et al (1976).

These samples were primarily collected for calibration of the Endeco pulsed electrode system. However, on cruises where this failed (Challenger 45 and 46) the titrated samples provide the only available underway oxygen data.

References

Bryan, J.R., Riley, J.P. and Williams, P.J.LeB. (1976). A Winkler procedure for making precise measurements of oxygen concentration for productivity and related studies. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 21, 191-197.

Carrit, D.E. and Carpenter, J.H. (1966). Comparison and evaluation of currently employed modifications of the Winkler method for determining dissolved oxygen in sea water. J. Mar. Res. 24, 286-318..

Project Information

North Sea Project

The North Sea Project (NSP) was the first Marine Sciences Community Research project of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It evolved from a NERC review of shelf sea research, which identified the need for a concerted multidisciplinary study of circulation, transport and production.

The ultimate aim of the NERC North Sea Project was the development of a suite of prognostic water quality models to aid management of the North Sea. To progress towards water quality models, three intermediate objectives were pursued in parallel:

• Production of a 3-D transport model for any conservative passive constituent, incorporating improved representations of the necessary physics - hydrodynamics and dispersion;
• Identifying and quantifying non-conservative processes - sources and sinks determining the cycling and fate of individual constituents;
• Defining a complete seasonal cycle as a database for all the observational studies needed to formulate, drive and test models.

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory hosted the project, which involved over 200 scientists and support staff from NERC and other Government funded laboratories, as well as seven universities and polytechnics.

The project ran from 1987 to 1992, with marine field data collection between April 1988 and October 1989. One shakedown (CH28) and fifteen survey cruises (Table 1), each lasting 12 days and following the same track, were repeated monthly. The track selected covered the summer-stratified waters of the north and the homogeneous waters in the Southern Bight in about equal lengths together with their separating frontal band from Flamborough head to Dogger Bank, the Friesian Islands and the German Bight. Mooring stations were maintained at six sites for the duration of the project.

Alternating with the survey cruises were process study cruises (Table 2), which investigated some particular aspect of the science of the North Sea. These included fronts (nearshore, circulation and mixing), sandwaves and sandbanks, plumes (Humber, Wash, Thames and Rhine), resuspension, air-sea exchange, primary productivity and blooms/chemistry.

In addition to the main data collection period, a series of cruises took place between October 1989 and October 1990 that followed up work done on previous cruises (Table 3). Process studies relating to blooms, plumes (Humber, Wash and Rhine), sandwaves and the flux of contaminants through the Dover Strait were carried out as well as two `survey' cruises.

The data collected during the observational phase of the North Sea Project comprised one of the most detailed sets of observations ever undertaken in any shallow shelf sea at that time.

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: