Table of Contents

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

Neutral lipid fluxes, Indented Rotary Sphere (IRS) Moored sediment trap samples

   PI:            Stuart Wakeham
   of:            Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
   dataset:       Neutral lipid fluxes, Moored Indented Rotary Sphere sediment trap samples
   dates:         February 3, 1992 to December 13, 1992
   location:      N: 9  S: 0  W: -140  E: -140  
   project:       EqPac
   cruise/ship:   R/V Wecoma W9201B, Sediment trap mooring deployment
 
   Methodology:  Sediment trap material was filtered onto 90 mm glass fiber
   filters (A/E) and frozen.  Filters with trap material and sediments were
   Soxhlet extracted with methylene chloride-methanol (2:1) and the extracts
   partitioned into the organic phase with 5% NaCl.  The "lipid extracts"
   were saponified with 0.5N KOH/methanol, with "neutral lipids" extracted
   out of basic solution and "acids" extracted out of acidic solution.
   Neutral lipids were silylated with BSTFA and fatty acids were methylated
   with diazomethane.  Anaylsis was by gas chromatography and gas
   chromatography-mass spectrometry.
 
 

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).