Water column nitrate+nitrite d15N measurements from R/V L'Atalante in the southwest Pacific Ocean between New Caledonia and Tahiti from February to March 2015 (NCEI Accession 0278781)

This dataset contains chemical and physical data collected on R/V L'Atalante during cruise OUTPACE in the Coral Sea and South Pacific Ocean from 2015-02-23 to 2015-03-30. These data include depth, nitrate plus nitrite, and sigma-theta potential density. The instruments used to collect these data include Isotope-ratio Mass Spectrometer. These data were collected by Dr Angela Knapp of Florida State University, Oliver Grosso, Sophie Bonnet, and Thierry Moutin of Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, and Nathalie Leblond of Villefranche Oceanographic Laboratory as part of the "Quantifying nitrogen fixation along unique geochemical gradients in the southwest Pacific Ocean (SW Pac N2 fixation)" project. The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) submitted these data to NCEI on 2018-04-13.

The following is the text of the dataset description provided by BCO-DMO:

Water column nitrate+nitrite d15N measurements

Dataset Description:
This data set includes water column nitrate+nitrite d15N measurements. These measurements were used together with measurements of the d15N of particulate nitrogen collected in floating sediment traps that were deployed for several days to calculate the relative contribution of subsurface nitrate and nitrogen from N2 fixation for supporting export production (“d15N budgets”). The results suggest that N2 fixation supported a majority of export at Long Duration (LD) stations A and B, and a minor fraction of export at LD C. The results at LD stations A and B are unique compared to other d15N budgets from the oligotrophic regions, whereas the results from LD C are similar to prior reports from the eastern tropical South Pacific as well as the North Pacific near Hawaii. Additionally, these data are compared with other metrics of N2 fixation made on the same cruise.