Tamar Estuary (Plymouth, United Kingdom)

Air pressure; Air temperature; Atmospheric humidity; Particulate total and organic carbon concentrations in the water column; Precipitation and evaporation; Chlorophyll pigment concentrations in water bodies; Dissolved organic carbon concentration in the water column; Wind strength and direction; Vertical velocity of the water column (currents); Dissolved metal concentrations in the water column; Partial pressure (pCO2) and fugacity (fCO2) of carbon dioxide in the water column; Salinity of the water column; Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents); Nutrient fluxes between the bed and the water column; Temperature of the water column; Solar Radiation; Alkalinity, acidity and pH of the water column; Gas fluxes between the water column and the atmosphere

Meteorological packages; fluorometers; CTD; pH sensors; gas chromatographs; titrators; inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopes; nutrient analysers; dissolved gas sensors

The Laboratory of Oceanology is coordinating a MAST research programme on the biogeochemistry of carbon in coastal systems (the Bay of Calvi in France, the Tamar Estuary in United Kingdom and the Aveiro Lagoon in Portugal). As coordinator, ULg has to manage the complete set of data obtained during this project. According to the contract, the data will be available to European Oceanographers by the end of the contract (April 1993) in the standard LOTUS 123 format with all the necessary information concerning the sampling procedure. The aim of this MAST project is to collect field data in order to get a better understanding of the carbon cycle in coastal areas. A lot of related parameters are collected in the water column together with exchanges of carbon at some interfaces. The water column study includes diel cycles monitoring, surveys of the Plymouth Sound (10 stations) and transects up the River Tamar (12 stations). The data set includes 3 cycles, 5 surveys and 10 transects obtained during 4 campaigns (Aug 1991, Nov 1991, Mar 1992 and Jul 1992). Air-sea CO2 exchanges have been measured at several stations in the estuary. The project also includes two intercalibration exercises: air-sea gas exchange using the halogenated tracer method and the bell method applied to CO2; the intercomparison of CO2 seawater chemistry obtained from the measured pCO2, total alkalinity and in situ pH.

University of Liège, Laboratory of Oceanology
Sart Tilman B 6
Liège

B-4000
Belgium