Table of Contents

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

Particulate C, N and carbohydrates from moored sediment traps

   PI:              John Hedges (Hedges/Lee/Wakeham)
   of:              University of Washington
   dataset:         Particulate C, N and carbohydrates from moored sediment traps
   dates:           February 3, 1992 to December 13, 1992
   location:        N: 9  S: 0  W: -140  E: -140
   project/cruise:  Mooring Deployment EQPAC-1 along 140 West W9201B
   ship:            R/V Wecoma
 
   PI Notes
   Note on Peter Hernes carbohydrate sediment trap data - EQPAC
 
   IRS Traps refer to "Indented Rotating Sphere Traps".
   The IRS traps had one poison diffuser with approximately
   400 g NaCl and 400 mg mercuric chloride.
   NVC Traps refer to  "No Valve Control Traps",
   these traps did not have the indented rotating sphere
   valves.  The NVC traps had two poison diffusers, each with
   approximately 400 g NaCl and 400 mg mercuric chloride.
 
   For more detail on sediment trap arrays see:
   Cruise Report, EQPAC - 1, The First Leg of A JGOFS Study 
   of the Equatorial Pacific, R/V Wecoma W9201B,
   January 12, 1992 to February 8, 1992,  
   Chief Scientist: Jack Dymond, Oregon State University
 
   Sampling Protocols
 
   Reference:  Wilford Gardner (Texas A&M University) report on the use of sediment
   traps in upper 200m of the water column originally written as minutes for the
   meeting on the subject at the First International JGOFS Symposium held in
   Villefranche-sur-Mer, France in May, 1995, and eventually published as:
 
   Gardner, W. D., 2000. Sediment Trap Technology and Sampling in Surface Waters
   In: Hanson, R. B., Ducklow, H.W., and Field, J.G., The Changing Ocean Carbon Cycle:
   A midterm synthesis of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. pp 240-281.
   Cambridge University Press, U.S. JGOFS Contribution No. 362.
 
 
 

The U.S. EqPac process study consisted of repeat meridional sections (12°N -12°S) across the equator in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific from 95°W to 170°W during 1992. The major scientific program was focused at 140° W consisting of two meridional surveys, two equatorial surveys, and a benthic survey aboard the R/V Thomas Thompson. Long-term deployments of current meter and sediment trap arrays augmented the survey cruises. NOAA conducted boreal spring and fall sections east and west of 140°W from the R/V Baldridge and R/V Discoverer. Meteorological and sea surface observations were obtained from NOAA's in place TOGA-TAO buoy network.

The scientific objectives of this study were to determine the fluxes of carbon and related elements, and the processes controlling these fluxes between the Equatorial Pacific euphotic zone and the atmosphere and deep ocean. A broad overview of the program at the 140°W site is given by Murray et al. (Oceanography, 5: 134-142, 1992). A full description of the Equatorial Pacific Process Study, including the international context and the scientific results, appears in a series of Deep-Sea Research Part II special volumes:

Topical Studies in Oceanography, A U.S. JGOFS Process Study in the Equatorial Pacific (1995), Deep-Sea Research Part II, Volume 42, No. 2/3.

Topical Studies in Oceanography, A U.S. JGOFS Process Study in the Equatorial Pacific. Part 2 (1996), Deep-Sea Research Part II, Volume 43, No. 4/6.

Topical Studies in Oceanography, A U.S. JGOFS Process Study in the Equatorial Pacific (1997), Deep-Sea Research Part II, Volume 44, No. 9/10.

Topical Studies in Oceanography, The Equatorial Pacific JGOFS Synthesis (2002), Deep-Sea Research Part II, Volume 49, Nos. 13/14.

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).