Metadata
Mike Sieracki
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
POBox 475 McKown Pt. Rd.
W. Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575
207-633-9600
msieracki@bigelow.org

This data is from three cruises on the R/V Cape Hatteras taken in Aug and October 2001, and March 2002 from Boothbay Harbor Maine to the Sargasso Sea.  The purpose of these cruises was to study single-cell bacterial activity using the CTC assay (Sieracki et al. 1999) in context with other microplankton parameters.  Onboard flow cytometry (B-D FACScan instrument) was used to count pico- and nanoplankton, including total bacteria and CTC-active bacteria.  Pico- and nanophytoplankton were measured live (no sample preservation). CTD data is reported here along with the pico- and nanoplankton abundances.  The CTD data is from the bottle trip depths only.  The SeaBird CTD was provided by the ship.  At stations a drifting drogue, marking the water at 15m, was deployed and the CTD vertical profiles were taken at the drogue.

Size fractionated chlorophylls were prepared at sea using a 20um mesh and 3um polycarbonate filters.  Triplicate chlorophylls were collected on GF/F fiberglass filters (0.7um nominal porosity).  One hundred mLs of each size fraction were filtered.  Chlorophylls were measured with a Turner fluorometer at sea following acetone extraction. Total (whole water), < 20um, and <3 um filters were measured and the >20um, and 3-20um fractions were calculated by subtraction.  When negative differences were found a zero was recorded.

Sieracki, M. E., Cucci, T. L., Nicinski, J. 1999. Flow cytometric analysis of 5-cyano-2,3-ditoyl tetrazolium chloride activity of marine bacterioplankton in dilution cultures. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65, 2409-2417.

Data provided
Cruise- CH0901, CH1301, CH0402 are the three cruises
DATE- data and time are in Eastern US standard time
TIME (EST)
LATITUDE- decimal degrees
LONGITUDE- decimal degrees
DEPTH (m)- calculated from CTD software
STN DESCRIPTION- words describing location/watermass type
CTD- sequence number
CONDUCTIVITY (S/m)- from CTD instrument
PRESSURE (db) - from CTD instrument
DENSITY (KG/M3) - from CTD instrument
SALINITY (PSU) - from CTD instrument
TRANSMISSION- by transmissometer on CTD package
TEMP (C) - from CTD instrument
INSITU CHL (volts)- SeaBird or Chelsea instrument (these sensors had technical problems - high noise)
ww CHL (µg/L)- extracted chlorophyll, whole water, mean of triplicates
>20 µ CHL (µg/L)- calculated by difference
20-3µ CHL (µg/L) - calculated by difference
<3 µ CHL (µg/L)- extracted chlorophyll that passed the 3um filter.
Pro (N/ml)- Prochlorococcus cell abundance
Syn (N/ml)- Synechococcus cell abundance
PicoEuks (N/ml)- pico-eukaryote cell abundances
Cryptos (N/ml)- Cryptophyte cell abundances
Total Phyto (N/ml)- total phytoplankton (< ca. 20um)
CTC active (N/ml)- active bacteria abundances
TB/ml - total bacteria abundances
Mean % Active - percent active