ADBEX I cruise to the Prydz Bay region, 1982: nutrient data

From the abstract and introduction of ANARE Research Notes 44 - ADBEX I cruise to the Prydz Bay region, 1982: nutrient data.

Nitrate, phosphate and silicate concentrations obtained during the ADBEX I cruise to the Prydz Bay region in November and December 1982 are plotted with depth and the raw data are tabulated. Location of the sampling stations and the average concentration of each nutrient in the top 100 m of the water column is mapped.

The ADBEX I (Antarctic Division BIOMASS Experiment) cruise is part of a long-term, national program of field surveys aimed at fulfilling the objectives of the BIOMASS (Biological Investigation of Marine Antarctic Systems and Stocks) program. The ADBEX I cruise on MV Nella Dan to the Prydz Bay region between 19 November and 17 December 1982, is the second Antarctic Division cruise to contribute to BIOMASS, the first being FIBEX (First International Biomass Experiment) in 1981.

Nutrient data were collected at twenty-eight of the seventy-nine hydrographic stations to provide information for the interpretation of phytoplankton distribution and abundance. The sampling locations and depths were not selected, therefore, on the basis of nutrient-related considerations.

The concentration of nitrate, phosphate and silicate is plotted to 600 m for each station and where casts were much deeper or much shallower, a second plot is shown. To show water column structure at the time of sampling, sigma-t values were also plotted, unless data for a cast were unavailable. In addition to the depth profiles, the average concentration to 100 m of each nutrient species is mapped to give a first-order approximation of the horizontal pattern of nutrient distribution in the upper layers.