Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 2136417

• 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

Becton Dickinson FACSort Flow Cytometer

The Becton Dickinson FACSort Flow Cytometer is a benchtop, five-detector, flow cytometer that is designed to analyse cells as they travel, one by one, in a moving fluid stream, through a focused, air-cooled, argon-ion laser beam. Samples are introduced through a stainless steel injection tube equipped with an outer droplet containment sleeve. As the cell passes through the laser, a mechanical catcher tube located in the upper portion of the flow cell, moves in and out of the sample stream to collect desired cells at a rate of up to 300 per second. The physical characteristics of the cells, which pertain to how the cell scatters the laser light and emits fluorescence are then analysed. This provides information about the cell's size, internal complexity and relative fluorescence intensity. Up to five parameters can be measured at once by the FACSort including forward light scatter, side light scatter, three fluorescence parameters, pulse height and width of each fluorescence parameter. FACSort can be operated with any Macintosh computer, where the information is output to. The FACSort system includes CELLQuest software for acquisition and analysis and FACSComp software for daily setup and quality control.

Droplet formation of sheath fluid as it backflows from the injection tube is eliminated by the use of the containment sleeve in conjunction with a vacuum pump. Fluid controls allow the user to select the fluidics mode and sample flow rate. As a mechanical device is used to sort cells, no side streams are formed so aerosol formation is completely eliminated. The laser alignment and stream velocity are fixed so the time it takes for desired cells to reach the catcher tube is constant so no setup calculations are required. As no optical alignment is required, daily setup can be performed quickly and consistently. Between one and three cell collection tubes can be installed and the instrument will automatically determine the maximum volume of sample to collect.

Specifications

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

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.

D321A Microbial community data

Originator's Protocol for Data Acquisition and Analysis

Water samples were collected from the 6 light depths (1, 4.5, 7, 14, 33 and 55% of surface light) and either one or two depths below the euphotic zone. Samples from CTDs coinciding with bacterivory experiments were analysed immediately by flow cytometry to determine microbial abundance and composition. Samples from all other CTD stations were preserved and frozen at -80°C for post-cruise analysis. Fresh seawater samples were collected in clean 250 mL polycarbonate bottles from a Seabird CTD system containing either 24 x 20 L Niskin bottles. Samples were stored in a refrigerator and analysed within 1-2 hours of collection. Fresh samples were measured using a Becton Dickinson FACSort instrument, which characterised and enumerated Synechococcus spp. (cyanobacteria), picoeukaryotes, cryptophytes, coccolithophores and other nanophytoplankton based on their light scattering and autofluorescence properties. Microorganisms were also preserved with paraformaldehyde (1% final concentration) and then stained with SYBR Green I nucleic acid stain. The samples were then left in the dark at room temperature for at least 1 hour before enumeration of bacterioplankton, heterotrophic and phototrophic flagellates by flow cytometry. Samples for post-cruise analysis were collected in 50 mL polypropylene centrifuge tubes and stored in a refrigerator for up to 4 h before fixing with paraformaldehyde (1% final concentration). Samples were then left to fix in a refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour before being frozen and stored in a -80°C freezer.

BODC Data Processing Procedures

Data received were loaded into the BODC database using established BODC data banking procedures. Originators parameters were mapped to BODCs parameters as follows:

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

Data Activity

BODC Sample Metadata Report for D321A_CTD_16257A

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: D321A_CTD_16257A

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