SeaFlow data v1, high-resolution abundance, size and biomass of small phytoplankton in the North Pacific

François Ribalet,Jarred Swalwell,Eric Shimabukuro,Chris Berthiaume,Michael Carlson,Gwenn Hennon,E Virginia Armbrust,Sophie Clayton,Annette Hynes,Camille Poirier,Angelicque White

doi:10.1038/s41597-019-0292-2

Abstract

SeaFlow is an underway flow cytometer that provides continuous shipboard observations of the abundance and optical properties of small phytoplankton (<5 μm in equivalent spherical diameter, ESD). Here we present data sets consisting of SeaFlow-based cell abundance, forward light scatter, and pigment fluorescence of individual cells, as well as derived estimates of ESD and cellular carbon content of picophytoplankton, which includes the cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and small-sized Crocosphaera (<5 μm ESD), and picophytoplankton and nanophytoplankton (2–5 μm ESD). Data were collected in surface waters (≈5 m depth) from 27 oceanographic cruises carried out in the Northeast Pacific Ocean between 2010 and 2018. Thirteen cruises provide high spatial resolution (≈1 km) measurements across 32,500 km of the Northeast Pacific Ocean and 14 near-monthly cruises beginning in 2015 provide seasonal distributions at the long-term sampling site (Station ALOHA) of the Hawaii Ocean Time-Series. These data sets expand our knowledge of the current spatial and temporal distributions of picophytoplankton in the surface ocean.

Highlights

Background & SummaryMarine phytoplankton are responsible for about half of the planet’s annual production of oxygen and organic carbon, and play a significant role in mediating global biogeochemical cycles[1]
SeaFlow eliminates the traditional need for a sheath fluid by employing a unique optical system that relies on three photodetectors, including two position-sensitive detectors, to create a virtual core in the sample stream within which the properties of particles are accurately measured
We present SeaFlow datasets consisting of over 69,000 data files collected in surface waters in the Northeast Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1 and Table 1)

Summary

Background & Summary

Marine phytoplankton are responsible for about half of the planet’s annual production of oxygen and organic carbon, and play a significant role in mediating global biogeochemical cycles[1]. SeaFlow eliminates the traditional need for a sheath fluid by employing a unique optical system that relies on three photodetectors, including two position-sensitive detectors, to create a virtual core in the sample stream within which the properties of particles are accurately measured This enables the instrument to continuously sample surface seawater from a ship’s flow-through seawater system. The estimates of cell abundance, light scatter, fluorescence emissions, ESD and carbon quotas include a measurement error based on the uncertainties in the virtual core volume and light scatter conversion. Time, underway sea surface temperature, salinity and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and were merged with the SeaFlow data sets These data are available without restrictions at the Zenodo open access research data repository. 0.3−μm beads 0.5−μm beads 0.75−μm beads 1−μm beads 1.83−μm beads 3.1−μm beads 5.7−μm beads www.nature.com/scientificdata

Methods

Findings

Code availability