The Source and Fate of Primary Production in Relation to Carbon Fluxes on NOAA's Long Line Cruises

Francisco Chavez, Reiko Michisaki, Kurt Buck

N94S : Equatorial Pacific Spring 1994

Climatological Mean from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS)

This cruise supports research funded by the NOAA Office of Global Programs (OGP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), under the Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study (OACES) and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The goal of the OACES project is to determine the source and sink regions of CO2 in the Equatorial and North Atlantic during the summer. Baseline of total carbon inventory in this region was established such that the uptake rate of atmospheric CO2 can be determined for future cruises. Our contribution to this project was to enhance the observations relevant to climate and global change with measurements of primary and new production in an attempt to quantify the effects of the biological system on the carbon and nitrogen cycle.

This cruise took place aboard the NOAA research vessel R/V DISCOVERER and occurred between February 27 to April 25,  1994.  There were 3 legs to the cruise of which the data submitted in this report encompasses only Leg 3.   The cruise tracks and station locations  are shown in Figure 1.  Leg 3 departed from Punta Arenas, Chile and proceeded to 67°S, from there journeying northward to the coastal waters off the tip of Baja California.  Sampling began on Feb. 27, and traveling 5400 nautical miles along the105°W and 110°W meridian from 67°S to 23°N we collected samples from 50 Kevlar and 47 CTD stations.

Data from this cruise were collected and processed by personnel from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).  This data and other data collected on this cruise are also available at the NOAA Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) site http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ocd/oaces

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