Metadata Report for BODC Series Reference Number 2137501

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

Data Description

Data Category

Water sample data

Instrument Type

Name	Categories
Niskin bottle	discrete water samplers
unknown	unknown

Instrument Mounting

lowered unmanned submersible

Originating Country

United Kingdom

Originator

Dr Mike Zubkov

Originating Organization

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

Processing Status

banked

Online delivery of data

Download available - Ocean Data View (ODV) format

Project(s)

Oceans 2025

Data Identifiers

Originator's Identifier	D321A_CTD_AFCX_142:16247B
BODC Series Reference	2137501

Time Co-ordinates(UT)

Start Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm)	2007-08-10 02:43
End Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm)	-
Nominal Cycle Interval	-

Spatial Co-ordinates

Latitude	59.98947 N ( 59° 59.4' N )
Longitude	20.47579 W ( 20° 28.5' W )
Positional Uncertainty	0.05 to 0.1 n.miles
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Depth	7.3 m
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Depth	7.3 m
Minimum Sensor or Sampling Height	2734.4 m
Maximum Sensor or Sampling Height	2734.4 m
Sea Floor Depth	2741.7 m
Sea Floor Depth Source	BUDS
Sensor or Sampling Distribution	Unspecified -
Sensor or Sampling Depth Datum	Unspecified -
Sea Floor Depth Datum	Unspecified -

Parameters

BODC CODE	Rank	Units	Title
ADEPZZ01	1	Metres	Depth (spatial coordinate) relative to water surface in the water body
BOTTFLAG	1	Not applicable	Sampling process quality flag (BODC C22)
FIRSEQID	1	Dimensionless	Bottle firing sequence number
H396080A	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance standard deviation of bacteria (ITIS: 202421: WoRMS 6) per unit volume of the water body by flow cytometry
NAN10057	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance of nanoeukaryotic cells [Size: 5um Subgroup: aplastidic] per unit volume of the water body by SYBR Green I staining and flow cytometry
NAN10058	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance of nanoeukaryotic cells [Size: 2um Subgroup: plastidic] per unit volume of the water body by SYBR Green I staining and flow cytometry
NAN10059	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance of nanoeukaryotic cells [Size: 3um Subgroup: plastidic] per unit volume of the water body by SYBR Green I staining and flow cytometry
NAN10060	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance of nanoeukaryotic cells [Size: 5um Subgroup: plastidic] per unit volume of the water body by SYBR Green I staining and flow cytometry
ROSPOSID	1	Dimensionless	Bottle rosette position identifier
SAMPRFNM	1	Dimensionless	Sample reference number
TBCCAFTX	1	Number per millilitre	Abundance of bacteria (ITIS: 202421: WoRMS 6) per unit volume of the water body by flow cytometry

Definition of BOTTFLAG

BOTTFLAG	Definition
0	The sampling event occurred without any incident being reported to BODC.
1	The filter in an in-situ sampling pump physically ruptured during sample resulting in an unquantifiable loss of sampled material.
2	Analytical evidence (e.g. surface water salinity measured on a sample collected at depth) indicates that the water sample has been contaminated by water from depths other than the depths of sampling.
3	The feedback indicator on the deck unit reported that the bottle closure command had failed. General Oceanics deck units used on NERC vessels in the 80s and 90s were renowned for reporting misfires when the bottle had been closed. This flag is also suitable for when a trigger command is mistakenly sent to a bottle that has previously been fired.
4	During the sampling deployment the bottle was fired in an order other than incrementing rosette position. Indicative of the potential for errors in the assignment of bottle firing depth, especially with General Oceanics rosettes.
5	Water was reported to be escaping from the bottle as the rosette was being recovered.
6	The bottle seals were observed to be incorrectly seated and the bottle was only part full of water on recovery.
7	Either the bottle was found to contain no sample on recovery or there was no bottle fitted to the rosette position fired (but SBE35 record may exist).
8	There is reason to doubt the accuracy of the sampling depth associated with the sample.
9	The bottle air vent had not been closed prior to deployment giving rise to a risk of sample contamination through leakage.

Definition of Rank
Rank 1 is a one-dimensional parameter Rank 2 is a two-dimensional parameter Rank 0 is a one-dimensional parameter describing the second dimension of a two-dimensional parameter (e.g. bin depths for moored ADCP data)

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.

Bacterivory and amino acid turnover rates by bacterioplankton from CTD bottles on RRS Discovery cruise 321A (D321A)

Originator's Protocol for Data Acquisition and Analysis

Bacterivory and amino acid uptake rates were determined from short incubations using water collected from CTD bottles representing the surface mixed layer (5 m) and thermocline (47 m). Bacterivory rates were determined using a pulse-chase technique labelled with ³H-leucine and/or ³⁵S-methionine (see table below) as described in Zubkov & Tarran (2008). Rates were determined from the more statistically robust ³⁵S tracer only. Ambient concentrations and total microbial turnover rates of amino acids were estimated using a concentration series bioassay technique of radioisotope dilution (labelled with ³⁵S-methionine and ³H-leucine) following the method described in Zubkov et. al. (2008).

Tracers used for bacterivory incubations:

Exp. No.	Date	SITE	CTD Station	Target depth (m)	Tracers
1	30/07/2007	C1C2	16209B	5	³⁵S
2	31/07/2007	C1C5	16212B	5	³⁵S
3	01/08/2007	C1G4	16217A	5	³⁵S
4	02/08/2007	C1I3	16222B	5	³⁵S
5	05/08/2007	C1I1	16226B	5	³⁵S, ³H
6	07/08/2007	S1G4	16236B	47	³⁵S, ³H
7	10/08/2007	S1A2	16247B	5	³⁵S, ³H
8	11/08/2007	C2B7	16252A	47	³⁵S, ³H
9	12/08/2007	C2E6	16260B	47	³⁵S, ³H
10	13/08/2007	C2B5	16266A	5	³⁵S, ³H
11	16/08/2007	C2F2	16280A	47	³⁵S, ³H
12	18/08/2007	S2CYC	16285B	5	³⁵S, ³H
13	19/08/2007	S2ANT	16286B	5	³⁵S, ³H

References Cited

Zubkov, M.V. and Tarran, G.A., 2008. High bacterivory by the smallest phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean, Nature, 455, 224-226.

Zubkov, M.V., Tarran, G.A., Mary, I. and Fuchs, M., 2008. Differential microbial uptake of dissolved amino acids and amino sugars in surface waters of the Atlantic Ocean, J. Plankton. Res., 30(2), 211-220.

BODC Data Processing Procedures

Data received were loaded into the BODC database using established BODC data banking procedures. The following discrepancies between the data originator's metadata and the metadata held centrally in the database were observed:

CTD date: The date for station 16247B (exp. 7) was incorrect by one day. However, all other metadata for this station indicated that only the date was wrong. This was possibly because the cast was carried out just after midnight when hand-written mistakes are common.

Niskin bottles: The identification of CTD niskin bottles sampled was not provided or recorded (only nominal depths were provided) and more than one niskin bottle was fired at each of the sampled depths. Consequently, rates had to be assigned without basis to one of the niskin bottles at each depth. The difference in depth between niskin bottles fired at the same nominal depth was 0.05 - 0.28 m.

Corrections were applied without referral to the data originator. Data were visually screened and then loaded to the database without any further changes. The originator's variables were mapped to appropriate BODC parameter codes as follows:

Originator's Parameter	Unit	Description	BODC Parameter Code	BODC Unit	Comments
Leu	nM	Concentration of leucine in seawater	LETHDLTX	nmol l^-1
sd	nM	Standard deviation of leucine concentration in seawater	LESDDLTX	nmol l^-1
Leu d^-1	nM d^-1	Uptake rate of leucine at ambient concentration	LETHUPTX	nmol l^-1 d^-1
sd	nM d^-1	Standard deviation of leucine uptake rate	LESDUPTX	nmol l^-1 d^-1
Turnover	h	Turnover of leucine at ambient concentration			Derived - not transferred
sd	h	Standard deviation of leucine turnover			Derived - not transferred
Met	nM	Concentration of methionine in seawater	METHDLTX	nmol l^-1
sd	nM	Standard deviation of methionine concentration in seawater	MESDDLTX	nmol l^-1
Met d^-1	nM d^-1	Uptake rate of methionine at ambient concentration	METHUPTX	nmol l^-1 d^-1
sd	nM d^-1	Standard deviation of methionine uptake rate	MESDUPTX	nmol l^-1 d^-1
Turnover	h	Turnover of methionine at ambient concentration			Derived - not transferred
sd	h	Standard deviation of methionine turnover			Derived - not transferred
Bacterioplankton	cells ml^-1	Bacterioplankton abundance in seawater	TBCCAFTX	# ml^-1
sd	cells ml^-1	Standard deviation of bacterioplankton abundance	H396080A	# ml^-1
Heterotrophic algae (aplastidic)	cells ml^-1	Heterotrophic nanoeukaryotes (~5 µm) abundance in seawater	NAN10057	# ml^-1
Heterotrophic algae (plastidic small)	cells ml^-1	Plastidic nanoeukaryotes (~2 µm) abundance in seawater	NAN10058	# ml^-1
Heterotrophic algae (plastidic medium)	cells ml^-1	Plastidic nanoeukaryotes (~3 µm) abundance in seawater	NAN10059	# ml^-1
Heterotrophic algae (plastidic large)	cells ml^-1	Plastidic nanoeukaryotes (~5 µm) abundance in seawater	NAN10060	# ml^-1
Bacterivory estimate (aplastidic)	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Bacterivory in seawater by aplastidic alga	NAN10061	# ind^-1 ml^-1
sd	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of bacterivory by aplastidic algae	NAN10065	# ind^-1 ml^-1
Bacterivory estimate (plastidic small)	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Bacterivory in seawater by small plastidic algae	NAN10062	# ind^-1 ml^-1
sd	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of bacterivory by small plastidic algae	NAN10066	# ind^-1 ml^-1
Bacterivory estimate (plastidic medium)	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Bacterivory in seawater by medium plastidic algae	NAN10063	# ind^-1 ml^-1
sd	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of bacterivory by medium plastidic algae	NAN10067	# ind^-1 ml^-1
Bacterivory estimate (plastidic large)	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Bacterivory in seawater by large plastidic algae	NAN10064	# ind^-1 ml^-1
sd	Bpl cells protist^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of bacterivory by large plastidic algae	NAN10068	# ind^-1 ml^-1
Population bacterivory (aplastidic)	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Population bacterivory by aplastidic algae in seawater			Derived - not transferred
sd	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of population bacterivory by aplastidic algae			Derived - not transferred
Population bacterivory (plastidic small)	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Population bacterivory by small plastidic algae in seawater			Derived - not transferred
sd	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of population bacterivory by small plastidic algae			Derived - not transferred
Population bacterivory (plastidic medium)	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Population bacterivory by medium plastidic algae in seawater			Derived - not transferred
sd	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of population bacterivory by medium plastidic algae			Derived - not transferred
Population bacterivory (plastidic large)	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Population bacterivory by large plastidic algae in seawater			Derived - not transferred
sd	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Standard deviation of population bacterivory by large plastidic algae			Derived - not transferred
Population bacterivory (plastidic sum)	Bpl cells ml^-1 h^-1	Sum of population bacterivory by plastidic algae			Derived - not transferred

Data Quality Report

Determination of bacterivory by medium plastidic algae (NAN10063) in the thermocline (47 m) of temperate waters was not practical because of low plastidic algae abundance and low cellular rates of tracer assimilation (Originator's assessment). The identification of CTD niskin bottles sampled was not provided (only nominal depths were provided) and more than one niskin bottle was fired at each of the sampled depths. Consequently, rates had to be assigned without basis to one of the niskin bottles at each depth. The difference in depth between niskin bottles fired at the same nominal depth was 0.05 - 0.28 m (BODC assessment).

Problem Report

None.

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

Start Date (yyyy-mm-dd)	2007-08-10
End Date (yyyy-mm-dd)	2007-08-10
Organization Undertaking Activity	National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Country of Organization	United Kingdom
Originator's Data Activity Identifier	D321A_CTD_16247B
Platform Category	lowered unmanned submersible

BODC Sample Metadata Report for D321A_CTD_16247B

Sample reference number	Nominal collection volume(l)	Bottle rosette position	Bottle firing sequence number	Minimum pressure sampled (dbar)	Maximum pressure sampled (dbar)	Depth of sampling point (m)	Bottle type	Sample quality flag

177983	10.00	19	19	6.80	8.00	7.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
177984	10.00	20	20	7.30	7.70	7.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
177985	10.00	21	21	7.00	7.80	7.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
177986	10.00	22	22	7.20	7.50	7.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
177987	10.00	23	23	7.30	7.70	7.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
177988	10.00	24	24	7.30	7.70	7.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178131	10.00	15	10	34.40	34.90	34.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178132	10.00	11	17	7.10	8.00	7.50	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178338	10.00	1	1	810.70	811.80	802.00	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178339	10.00	2	2	405.80	406.80	402.10	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178340	10.00	3	3	128.40	129.20	127.50	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178341	10.00	4	4	77.40	78.30	77.10	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178342	10.00	13	5	77.50	78.00	77.00	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178343	10.00	5	6	49.30	50.20	49.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178344	10.00	6	7	48.90	50.10	49.00	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178345	10.00	14	8	49.20	50.00	49.10	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178346	10.00	7	9	34.00	34.90	34.10	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178347	10.00	8	11	29.60	29.80	29.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178348	10.00	16	12	29.20	30.10	29.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178349	10.00	9	13	22.30	23.00	22.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178350	10.00	17	14	22.40	22.80	22.40	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178351	10.00	10	15	12.10	12.80	12.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178352	10.00	18	16	12.00	12.80	12.30	Niskin bottle	No problem reported
178353	10.00	12	18	7.10	8.00	7.50	Niskin bottle	No problem reported

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

Cruise Name	D321 (D321A)
Departure Date	2007-07-24
Arrival Date	2007-08-23
Principal Scientist(s)	John T Allen (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)
Ship	RRS Discovery

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:

Flag	Description
Blank	Unqualified
<	Below detection limit
>	In excess of quoted value
A	Taxonomic flag for affinis (aff.)
B	Beginning of CTD Down/Up Cast
C	Taxonomic flag for confer (cf.)
D	Thermometric depth
E	End of CTD Down/Up Cast
G	Non-taxonomic biological characteristic uncertainty
H	Extrapolated value
I	Taxonomic flag for single species (sp.)
K	Improbable value - unknown quality control source
L	Improbable value - originator's quality control
M	Improbable value - BODC quality control
N	Null value
O	Improbable value - user quality control
P	Trace/calm
Q	Indeterminate
R	Replacement value
S	Estimated value
T	Interpolated value
U	Uncalibrated
W	Control value
X	Excessive difference

SeaDataNet Quality Control Flags