CalCOFI.io CalCOFI.io open data ecosystem

Bottle ammonium

µmol/Lkey btl_ammoniumNERC P01 AMONZZXXP06 units UPOXseries btl_ammonium

CalCOFI holds 69,506 values of it from 4,435 sampling events in one dataset, 2008–2026, from the surface to 3,510 m.R Ammonium is nitrogen recycled by zooplankton and bacteria; phytoplankton take it up before nitrate, so production fed by it is “regenerated” rather than “new”.C

69,506
values
0
flagged
2008–2026
years
1
dataset
1–3,510 m
depth
10 of 12
months
H4N+ · ammonium · 18.039 g/mol · CHEBI:28938Concentration of ammonium per unit volume of the water column. Ammonium may be expressed in terms of mass or quantity of substance.

Measured in 1 dataset
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One row per series, one cell per year, darker with more values — the same strip the front door draws per dataset and a species page draws per taxon. Each row is one dataset's own measurement_type; the label is written once, in the title above.

  • 69,506 values · 4,435 sampling events · 2008–2026 · 1–3,510 m · 107 grid cells · 63 cruises
    series btl_ammonium · source column nh4 no flag at this grain

Explorera depth section vs normaldb-queryERDDAPThis page as JSON R · Python · Parquet

Every way in 8 ways · ERDDAP · Parquet · R · Python · JSON

Read from measurements.json of release v2026.10.21, written at release by calcofi4db::build_measurements_catalog() beside taxa.json. The catalog's index is /measurements/; the JSON-LD on this page is a schema.org/DefinedTerm in the NERC P01 term set with a PropertyValue per series.

ExplorerExplorer · a depth section vs normaldb-query
ERDDAP · CTD Cast FilesCalCOFI's own server, the CTD Cast Files table constrained to this series
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/calcofi_ctd-cast.html?&measurement_type=%22btl_ammonium%22
The structure 2 structures
H4N+ ammonium CHEBI:28938 · 18.039 g/mol · the_thing
H3N ammonia CHEBI:16134 · 17.031 g/mol · conjugate

ChEBI: “An onium cation obtained by protonation of ammonia.” · RDKit 2026.03.6 from the ChEBI molfile, in the page’s ink · CC BY 4.0. ChEBI’s roles are never shown.

How it is measured Seal Analytical continuous-flow AutoAnalyzer 3 (AA3) at 660 nm
rosette bottle660 nm
CTD Cast Files · rosette bottle
Seal Analytical continuous-flow AutoAnalyzer 3 (AA3)

The Berthelot reaction: hypochlorous acid and phenol react with ammonium in alkaline solution to form indophenol blue, read in a 10 mm flow cell (a modification of Koroleff 1969, 1970). (calcofi.org Bottle sampling methods)

  • NH4+ + phenol + hypochlorite (alkaline) -> indophenol blue
  • absorbance read at 660 nm
no flag at this grain
Bottle sampling methods on calcofi.org ↗
Why it matters 5 ways to say it · EOV Nutrients

Essential Ocean Variable
Nutrients

the GOOS specification sheet for this Essential Ocean Variable lists it, and asks

GOOS asks

  • Is the biomass of the ocean changing?

GOOS specification sheet ↗ · quoted, not copied

other ways to say why · 4
  • authored Most nitrogen in the sunlit layer is recycled several times before it sinks; ammonium measures that recycling, excreted by animals and released as bacteria break organic matter down. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • GOOS asks Is the biomass of the ocean changing? source
  • Wikipedia Nitrogen cycle source
  • Wikipedia Ammonium is a modified form of ammonia that has an extra hydrogen atom. It is a positively charged (cationic) molecular ion with the chemical formula NH4+ or [NH4]+. Ammonium · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1376536172
The record’s own history 6 depth bands against the 1993–2013 normal

Each year against the normal
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Deeper than the climatology reaches: 17 values at 1000–2000 m, 20 values at 2000+ m have no normal to depart from, because the release’s climatology stops at its deepest built bin. Carrying it to the bottom is one argument of build_climatology() and puts these bands on the page too.

Units and range µmol/L · 0 … 100 declared · 0 flagged

µmol/L (umol/L in metadata/measurement_type.csv) · P06 units UPOX

bounds0 … 100 µmol/Lobserved0 … 33.58 µmol/Lflagged0baselineclimatology ✓
details
bounds
The registry declares 0 … 100 µmol/L for btl_ammonium; a value outside it is dropped at the ingest (drop_out_of_bounds()).
observed
CTD Cast Files btl_ammonium 0 · median 0 · 33.58 µmol/L (5th–95th percentile 0–0.6)
flags
CTD Cast Files btl_ammonium carries no quality code at the release grain; qual_ok keeps all 69,506.
baseline
A monthly climatology exists for this measurement (the release's climatology table: 1993–2013, dataset × station × the cruise's month × 10 m bin), so the Explorer can draw anomalies against it rather than values.

The familiar scale
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Bars are each series' 5th–95th percentile, the line its minimum to maximum, the ring its median; the marks are metadata/measurement_scale.csv's, each hovering to its own source.

By depth · by month 1–3,510 m · 10 of 12 months

By depth
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Values per depth band at the release grain, one thin bar per series. The bands are the record's own (0-10 … 2000+ m).

By month
i

Values per calendar month, one row per series: CalCOFI's quarterly cruises show as peaks in the months the ships sail.

Cite the release, v2026.10.21

Cite the release; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page — CTD Cast Files. The Explorer's Share → Cite writes it for the view you make.