Dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, and other variables collected from surface discrete observations using Niksin bottle and other instruments from R/V Sultana in the southwest coast of Puerto Rico from 2009-01-05 to 2016-02-01 (NCEI Accession 0145164)

Abstract

This time series dataset includes weekly and bi-weekly discrete seawater samples of pH and total alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon, phosphates and profile measurements of temperature and salinity from 2009 to 2015. These are used to track the dynamics and controls on local carbon chemistry at the southwest part of Puerto Rico in support of the ocean acidification and water quality research in regional coastal and near-shore zones. Some of these environmental parameters have been monitored since 2009 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Health and Monitoring Program established the Atlantic Ocean Acidification Test-Bed (AOAT) at the Marine Reserve of La Parguera, Puerto Rico. As a key part of this project, a moored autonomous pCO2 system (MAPCO2) was deployed along the fore-reef of Enrique shelf reef and a discrete sampling at the Marine Reserve for data validation and calibration commenced. This monitoring effort supports the requirements of the recent implementation of La Parguera as a Class III climate and ecosystem monitoring station through the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) in support of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and the Ocean Acidification Program (OAP).