Dissolved iron measurements from 32 stations in the Central Arctic Ocean and Arctic Shelf Sea during POLARSTERN expedition ARK-XXII/2

Concentrations of dissolved (<0.2 µm) Fe (DFe) in the Arctic shelf seas and in the surface waters of the central Arctic Ocean are presented. In the Barents and Kara seas, near-surface DFe minima indicate depletion of DFe by phytoplankton growth. Below the surface, lower DFe concentrations in the Kara Sea (~0.4-0.6 nM) than in the Barents Sea (~0.6-0.8 nM) likely reflect scavenging removal or biological depletion of DFe. Very high DFe concentrations (>10 nM) in the bottom waters of the Laptev Sea shelf may be attributed to either sediment resuspension, sinking of brine or regeneration of DFe in the lower layers. A significant correlation (R2 = 0.60) between salinity and DFe is observed. Using d18O, salinity, nutrients and total alkalinity data, the main source for the high (>2 nM) DFe concentrations in the Amundsen and Makarov Basins is identified as (Eurasian) river water, transported with the Transpolar Drift (TPD). On the North American side of the TPD, the DFe concentrations are low (<0.8 nM) and variations are determined by the effects of sea-ice meltwater, biological depletion and remineralization and scavenging in halocline waters from the shelf. This distribution pattern of DFe is also supported by the ratio between unfiltered and dissolved Fe (high (>4) above the shelf and low (<4) off the shelf).

Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) measurements from a Biospherical Instrument Inc. QCR-2150 surface PAR sensor mounted on a sensor mast during the Tara Oceans expedition 2009-2013

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set provides continuous measurements made with a Biospherical Instrument Inc. QCR-2150 surface PAR sensor mounted on a sensor mast at the stern of the ship (ca. 8m above deck) and time synchronized with the CTD recording unit. The sensor consists of a cosine collector and was also utilized to correct the CTD PAR sensor data. The dark was computed as the lowest 0.01% voltage of the signal that was found to be very stable (0.00965V) for all the legs except for the 2nd leg of the polar circle where there was no complete night (the manufacturer dark was 0.0097V). The manufacturer calibration slope from 12/ 2012 was used to transform the data to scientific units.

Properties of seawater and particulate matter (fluorescence) from a WETLabs Eco-FL sensor mounted on the continuous surface water sampling system during the Tara Oceans expedition 2009-2013

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set provides continuous measurements made with a WETLabs Eco-FL sensor mounted on the flowthrough system between June 4th, 2011 and March 30th, 2012. Data was recorded approximately every 10s. Two issues affected the data: 1. Periods when the water 0.2µm filtered water were used as blanks and 2. Periods where fluorescence was affected by non-photochemical quenching (NPQ, chlorophyll fluorescence is reduced when cells are exposed to light, e.g. Falkowski and Raven, 1997). Median data and their standard deviation were binned to 5min bins with period of light/dark indicated by an added variable (so that NPQ affected data could be neglected if the user so chooses). Data was first calibrated using HPLC data collected on the Tara (there were 36 data within 30min of each other). Fewer were available when there was no evident NPQ and the resulting scale factor was 0.0106 mg Chl m-3/count. To increase the calibration match-ups we used the AC-S data which provided a robust estimate of Chlorophyll (e.g. Boss et al., 2013). Scale factor computed over a much larger range of values than HPLC was 0.0088 mg Chl m-3/count (compared to 0.0079 mg Chl m-3/count based on manufacturer). In the archived data the fluorometer data is merged with the TSG, raw data is provided as well as manufacturer calibration constants, blank computed from filtered measurements and chlorophyll calibrated using the AC-S. For a full description of the processing of the Eco-FL please see Taillandier, 2015.