Cyanobacteria nifH Gene Abundance Time Series from the North Pacific Ocean

Time series measurements of nitrogenase (nifH) gene abundances for cyanobacteria at Station ALOHA in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean. The dataset was created by Matthew J. Church of the University of Montana, with samples collected and processed between 2006 and 2017. Abundances are reported as concentrations of genes per liter of seawater.

Use Cases

• Modeling nitrogen fixation rates based on nifH gene abundance time series.
• Analyzing cyanobacterial population dynamics in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean.
• Studying the relationship between oceanographic conditions and microbial gene expression.
• Calibrating biogeochemical models with in-situ genetic measurement data.

Strengths

• Describes a specific, long-term time series from 2006 to 2017.
• Provides detailed, standardized methodology for sample collection, DNA extraction, and quantitative PCR analysis.
• Data is converted to a standardized unit (genes per liter of seawater) for comparability.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Montana

Collection Method

Seawater samples were collected via CTD rosette, filtered, and genomic DNA was extracted. Quantitative PCR with TaqMan probes was used to determine nifH gene abundances relative to plasmid standard curves.

Time Range

2006-2017

Geography

Station ALOHA in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean