Caribbean Sea CTD and Nutrient Data from the CARIACO Project

NOAA NCEI Accession 0014920 contains physical and chemical oceanographic data from the continental shelf of Venezuela. Data were collected by the University of South Florida via CTD and bottle casts from the R/V HERMANO GINES between March 2006 and March 2007. The dataset supports the Carbon Retention in a Colored Ocean (CARIACO) project.

Use Cases

• Modeling relationships between temperature, salinity, depth (CTD parameters) and nutrient concentrations like nitrate and nitrite.
• Analyzing temporal trends in dissolved oxygen and productivity metrics over the one-year sampling period.
• Investigating correlations between particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) to understand marine organic matter composition.
• Calibrating remote sensing ocean color data with in-situ measurements of chlorophyll and related parameters from bottle samples.

Strengths

• Data covers a full annual cycle from March 2006 to March 2007.
• Includes multiple parameter groups: CTD (temperature, salinity, depth) and bottle chemistry (nutrients, oxygen, productivity, POC, PON, phosphorus).
• Collected by a recognized research institution (University of South Florida) for a major project (CARIACO).

Limitations

• Sample size and spatial resolution are unknown, likely limited to specific cruise tracks.
• Data is over 15 years old, limiting analysis of recent oceanographic changes.
• Potential for geographic bias, as sampling is confined to the Venezuelan continental shelf.

Provenance

Source

University of South Florida, collected for the CARIACO project and archived by NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Collected via Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) sensor profiles and water sample bottles from research vessel casts.

Time Range

16 March 2006 to 06 March 2007

Freshness

Data collection ended on 06 March 2007; no ongoing updates indicated.

Geography

Caribbean Sea, continental shelf of Venezuela