Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

   PI:              Dan Repeta
   of:              Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
   dataset:         Pigment concentrations, water bottle casts
   project/cruise:  North Atlantic Bloom Experiment cruises

Methodology:

CHLOROPHYLL-A (Repeta, WHOI)

For shipboard extraction of suspended particulate matter, 0.5-1 L of seawater
is filtered through a 47 mm Gelman A/E or 47 mm Whatman GF/F glass fiber
filter under low vacuum. The filter is immediately placed in a glass grinding
tube at 0° Centigrade, 2 mL of acetone and 0.1 mL of the internal
standard (8'-Ethyl-apocarotenoate or canthaxanthin in acetone) added,
and the sample ground at high speed for 2 min. The sample is centrifuged
for 2-4 min, and analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).
If the sample is to be stored for future analysis, the filter is folded,
heat sealed in a plastic bag, and rapidly frozen to -20° Centrigrade.

For shipboard analysis of suspended particulate matter samples, we
use a 10 cm reverse-phase ODS column (adsorbosphere HS, 3µm) eluted
with a linear gradient of 0-100% B (A=20/80 0.5N NH4Ac(aq)/MeOH; B=20/80
acetone/MeOH) over 10 min at 1.5 mL/min. For more detailed analysis,
we use a 15 cm column and a 30 min gradient. All samples were analyzed
by diode array spectroscopy (350-700nm) and fluorescence detection.

Individual components were quantified by normaling the data to the
internal standard to correct for evaporative losses, differences in
water retention by filters, and nonquantitative transfers during handling,
then correcting the data for individual compounds by using an appropriate
detector calibration factor. We calibrate our system by isolating pure
pigments, making quantitative standards, and carrying out a series of
analyses over the calibration range of interest. Depending on the pigment's
spectral properties, and the wavelength of detection, calibration factors
for individual pigments may differ by up to a factor of 5. For calibration
in the field, concentrated solutions of standards are prepared in benzene,
and 1 mL aliquots dispensed to 10 mL volumetric flasks. The flasks are
flushed with N2, capped, frozen at -20° Centigrade. Randomly chosen
standards are stored in the laboratory for spectroscopic analysis at
a later date. The remaining flasks are stored on shipboard until use.
For calibration, the standards are returned to room temperature and
acetone or methanol added to 10 mL. Aliquots are then analyzed by HPLC.
In the US JGOFS program, over 30 replicate standards were prepared and
analyzed daily in triplicate showed a SD of were calibrated daily for the internal standard and twice weekly for
chlorophyll-a. Calibration factors for major xanthophylls were determined
at least one time per week.

One of the first major activities of JGOFS was a multinational pilot project, North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE), carried out along longitude 20° West in 1989 through 1991. The United States participated in 1989 only, with the April deployment of two sediment trap arrays at 48° and 34° North. Three process-oriented cruises where conducted, April through July 1989, from R/V Atlantis II and R/V Endeavor focusing on sites at 46° and 59° North. Coordination of the NABE process-study cruises was supported by NSF-OCE award # 8814229. Ancillary sea surface mapping and AXBT profiling data were collected from NASA's P3 aircraft for a series of one day flights, April through June 1989.

A detailed description of NABE and the initial synthesis of the complete program data collection efforts appear in: Topical Studies in Oceanography, JGOFS: The North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (1993), Deep-Sea Research II, Volume 40 No. 1/2.

The U.S. JGOFS Data management office compiled a preliminary NABE data report of U.S. activities: Slagle, R. and G. Heimerdinger, 1991. U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, North Atlantic Bloom Experiment, Process Study Data Report P-1, April-July 1989. NODC/U.S. JGOFS Data Management Office, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 315 pp. (out of print).

The United States Joint Global Ocean Flux Study was a national component of international JGOFS and an integral part of global climate change research.

The U.S. launched the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) in the late 1980s to study the ocean carbon cycle. An ambitious goal was set to understand the controls on the concentrations and fluxes of carbon and associated nutrients in the ocean. A new field of ocean biogeochemistry emerged with an emphasis on quality measurements of carbon system parameters and interdisciplinary field studies of the biological, chemical and physical process which control the ocean carbon cycle. As we studied ocean biogeochemistry, we learned that our simple views of carbon uptake and transport were severely limited, and a new "wave" of ocean science was born. U.S. JGOFS has been supported primarily by the U.S. National Science Foundation in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research. U.S. JGOFS, ended in 2005 with the conclusion of the Synthesis and Modeling Project (SMP).