Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
  • BCO-DMO Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

Suspended particles were collected using McLane Research in-situ pumps (WTS-LV) using modified, two-layer filter holders. The top filter holder layer was loaded with a 51-micrometer (μm) polyester mesh filter to collect large-size fraction particles (LSF). The other filter holder layer was loaded with a pre-combusted GF/F glass microfiber filter (Whatman) to collect small-size fraction particles (SSF, 1-51 μm). Filter holders were acid-leached before use, and GF/F filters were additionally combusted at 450 degrees Celsius (°C) for 4 hours. Sinking particles were collected by sediment traps.

Total mercury (THg) and monomethylmercury (MMHg) in suspended and sinking particles were determined by digesting filter portions in nitric acid (2N, trace mental grade, Fisher) for 4 hours at 60°C constant water bath with intermittent sonication. For THg determination, digestates were oxidized with bromine monochloride for at least 2 hours and pre-reduced with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. Subsamples were then reduced with stannous chloride, and the evolved Hg0 concentrations were determined by dual gold amalgamation cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS) with a Tekran 2600 against both gaseous Hg0 and aqueous Hg2+ standards. MMHg determination used a direct ethylation method. Digestates were treated with ascorbic acid, buffered with acetate, and neutralized with potassium hydroxide (KOH; 45%) to pH between 4 and 5. Sodium tetraethylborate (1%, in 2% KOH) was added in digestates reacting for 20 minutes prior to analysis by CVAFS. The method detection limits for THg and MMHg were 26.5 femtomolar (fM) and 3.3 fM in the SSF, and 0.75 fM and 0.24 fM in the LSF, respectively.

For carbon (C) mass determination in the SSF and LSF, filters were packed into a tin capsule and analyzed for particulate carbon mass and measured using Carlo Erba 1108 elemental analyzer coupled to a Thermo Finningan Delta Plus XP IRMS at University of California, Santa Cruz. The analytical precision of C % is 0.65% in the SSF and 1.1% in the LSF based on the organic standards IU Acetanilide and USGC41.

Microsoft Excel was used for data processing.

We used the GEOTRACES Quality Flag Policy to reflect our data quality:
"1" represents good value;
"4" represents bad value due to errors in sampling;
"6" represents data value below the instrument detection limit;
"9" represents missing data / no data value.

- Imported original file "P2107_Part_Hg_BCODMO.xlsx" into the BCO-DMO system.
- Marked "n/a" as a missing data value (missing data are empty/blank in the final CSV file).
- Renamed fields to comply with BCO-DMO naming conventions.
- Created date-time fields in ISO8601 format in local and UTC time zones.
- Saved the final file as "926959_v1_suspended_partic_totalhg_and_monomethylhg_cce.csv".

From ccelter.edu:
The California Current System is a coastal upwelling biome, as found along the eastern margins of all major ocean basins. These are among the most productive ecosystems in the world ocean. The California Current Ecosystem LTER (32.9 degrees North, 120.3 degrees West) is investigating nonlinear transitions in the California Current coastal pelagic ecosystem, with particular attention to long-term forcing by a secular warming trend, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and El Nino in altering the structure and dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem. The California Current sustains active fisheries for a variety of finfish and marine invertebrates, modulates weather patterns and the hydrologic cycle of much of the western United States, and plays a vital role in the economy of myriad coastal communities.

LTER Data:
The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) LTER data are managed by and available directly from the CCE project data site URL shown above. If there are any datasets listed below, they are data sets that were collected at or near the CCE LTER sampling locations, and funded by NSF OCE as ancillary projects related to the CCE LTER core research themes.

NSF Award Abstract (OCE-2224726):
Coastal upwelling regions are found along the eastern boundaries of all ocean basins and are some of the most productive ecosystems in the ocean. This award is supporting the California Current Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research (CCE LTER) site in a major upwelling biome. It leverages the 73-year California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program which provides essential information characterizing climate variability and change in this system. The CCE LTER addresses two over-arching questions: What are the mechanisms leading to ecological transitions in a coastal pelagic ecosystem? And what is the interplay between changing ocean climate, community structure, and ecosystem dynamics? The investigators are working towards diagnosing mechanisms of ecosystem change and developing a quantitative framework for forecasting future conditions and how these might affect the management of key living marine resources, including numerous fishes, invertebrates, marine mammals, and seabirds. They are training graduate and undergraduate students, as well as providing educational opportunities for teachers. Public programs and outreach efforts in collaboration with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are increasing public awareness and understanding of climate effects on coastal pelagic communities and connecting the public to cutting-edge ocean research.

This project is adding to understanding of the mechanisms underlying abrupt ecological transitions with three interrelated foci: (1) investigation of marine heatwaves and resultant multiple stressors on organisms and communities, (2) elucidation of ecological stoichiometry and the response of multiple trophic levels to altered elemental ratios of source nutrients, and (3) analysis of top-down pressures mediated by a diverse suite of organisms. It is sustaining multi-scale measurements of five core LTER variables and responses to ocean warming, increased stratification, acidification, deoxygenation, and altered nutrient stoichiometry in the Northeast Pacific. The investigators are using long-term, spatially-resolved time series at multiple spatial scales to evaluate community shifts at multiple temporal scales, with new measurements allowing interrogation at finer taxonomic levels. They are conducting in situ multi-factorial experiments (temperature, macronutrients, micronutrients, light, grazing) in combination with genomic and transcriptomic analyses. These will complement time series measurements, inform next-generation biogeochemical models, and test hypotheses related to ecological stoichiometry and marine heatwaves. The team is also using a suite of imaging techniques, molecular and morphological methods, and active and passive acoustic approaches to quantify vertical structure and cooccurrence of organisms across trophic levels and test hypotheses about top-down control of the ecosystem.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

This project is supported by continuing grants with name variations:

• LTER: Nonlinear transitions in the California Current Coastal Pelagic Ecosystem
• Ecological Transitions in the California Current Ecosystem: CCE-LTER Phase II
• LTER: CCE-LTER Phase III: Ecological Transitions in an Eastern Boundary Current Upwelling Ecosystem
• LTER: Ecosystem controls and multiple stressors in a coastal upwelling system - CCE IV

NSF Award Abstract
This project will study how dimethylmercury is formed and removed in the oceans. Dimethylmercury is a naturally occurring compound. It is thought to be formed when man-made mercury is converted into monomethylmercury, a toxin that accumulates in fish. Despite representing a large fraction of mercury in the oceans, the origin and fate of dimethylmercury is not known. This research will use state-of-the-art analytical, genomic and modeling tools to address this information gap. It will also train graduate and undergraduate students to use field, experimental, and modeling methods. The results will be used in predictive models to forecast future trends in the oceanic mercury cycle. These models are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of international actions that seek to reverse increasing trends in the bioaccumulation of monomethylmercury in fish.

Methylated mercury species in the ocean are formed in sediment and the water column from inorganic divalent mercury delivered from the atmosphere and rivers. The putative mechanism is a two-step process during which monomethylmercury is formed first, followed by slow methylation into dimethylmercury. The first step, biomethylation of divalent mercury into monomethylmercury, is relatively well-studied in sediment and known to be driven by sulfate- and iron-reducing bacteria and methanogens. The mechanism for monomethylmercury formation in the water column is less well understood, and the process of dimethylmercury formation in sediment or seawater is essentially unknown. Until recently, it was assumed that dimethylmercury represented a small enough fraction of the methylated and total mercury (the sum of all mercury species) pools to be insignificant in the global mercury cycle. Recent measurements, however, show that dimethylmercury levels in seawater can be in the same range as the other mercury species. This project will identify the biological and chemical methylating agents involved in the formation of dimethylmercury. Further, it will test the impact of varying biogeochemical conditions on dimethylmercury production. Results will be used to update the mercury module of the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm, a global biogeochemical model, and analyze the impacts of dimethylmercury production and degradation on monomethylmercury concentrations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program focuses on the ocean's role as a component of the global Earth system, bringing together research in geochemistry, ocean physics, and ecology that inform on and advance our understanding of ocean biogeochemistry. The overall program goals are to promote, plan, and coordinate collaborative, multidisciplinary research opportunities within the U.S. research community and with international partners. Important OCB-related activities currently include: the Ocean Carbon and Climate Change (OCCC) and the North American Carbon Program (NACP); U.S. contributions to IMBER, SOLAS, CARBOOCEAN; and numerous U.S. single-investigator and medium-size research projects funded by U.S. federal agencies including NASA, NOAA, and NSF.

The scientific mission of OCB is to study the evolving role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle, in the face of environmental variability and change through studies of marine biogeochemical cycles and associated ecosystems.

The overarching OCB science themes include improved understanding and prediction of: 1) oceanic uptake and release of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases and 2) environmental sensitivities of biogeochemical cycles, marine ecosystems, and interactions between the two.

The OCB Research Priorities (updated January 2012) include: ocean acidification; terrestrial/coastal carbon fluxes and exchanges; climate sensitivities of and change in ecosystem structure and associated impacts on biogeochemical cycles; mesopelagic ecological and biogeochemical interactions; benthic-pelagic feedbacks on biogeochemical cycles; ocean carbon uptake and storage; and expanding low-oxygen conditions in the coastal and open oceans.

adapted from http://www.lternet.edu/

The National Science Foundation established the LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The LTER Network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. The LTER research sites represent diverse ecosystems with emphasis on different research themes, and cross-site communication, network publications, and research-planning activities are coordinated through the LTER Network Office.

2017 LTER research site map obtained from https://lternet.edu/site/lter-network/