CalCOFI.io CalCOFI.io open data ecosystem

Bottle phosphate

µmol/Lkey btl_phosphateNERC P01 PHOSZZXXP06 units UPOXseries btl_phosphate

CalCOFI holds 145,401 values of it from 8,481 sampling events in one dataset, 1993–2026, from the surface to 3,510 m. At 10–50 m it has fallen 0.03 per decade since 1993.R Phosphate is one of the two fertilisers a bloom cannot do without; off Southern California it has risen in the lower pycnocline as oxygen fell, and the nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio of the water that feeds upwelling has shifted with it.C

145,401
values
0
flagged
1993–2026
years
1
dataset
1–3,510 m
depth
every month
months
O4P3− · phosphate(3−) · 94.970 g/mol · CHEBI:18367Concentration of phosphate per unit volume of the water column. Phosphate 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.

  • 145,401 values · 8,481 sampling events · 1993–2026 · 1–3,510 m · 109 grid cells · 123 cruises
    series btl_phosphate · source column po4 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_phosphate%22
The structure O4P3− phosphate(3−)
O4P3− phosphate(3−) CHEBI:18367 · 94.970 g/mol · the_thing

ChEBI: “A phosphate ion that is the conjugate base of hydrogenphosphate.” · 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 820 nm
rosette bottle820 nm
CTD Cast Files · rosette bottle
Seal Analytical continuous-flow AutoAnalyzer 3 (AA3)

A modification of Bernhardt and Wilhelm: acidic ammonium molybdate forms phosphomolybdic acid, reduced by dihydrazine sulfate to a blue compound, heated to about 55C to develop color, and read in a 10 mm flow cell. (calcofi.org Bottle sampling methods)

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

  • How do the eutrophication and pollution impact ocean productivity and water quality?
  • Is the biomass of the ocean changing?

GOOS specification sheet ↗ · quoted, not copied

other ways to say why · 4
  • authored Where phosphate is high at the surface, deep water has arrived recently and little has yet grown on it. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • GOOS asks How do the eutrophication and pollution impact ocean productivity and water quality? source
  • GOOS asks Is the biomass of the ocean changing? source
  • Wikipedia A phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid, a.k.a. Phosphate · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1376284687
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: 52 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 … 10 declared · 0 flagged

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

bounds0 … 10 µmol/Lobserved0 … 5.21 µmol/Lflagged0baselineclimatology ✓
details
bounds
The registry declares 0 … 10 µmol/L for btl_phosphate; a value outside it is dropped at the ingest (drop_out_of_bounds()).
observed
CTD Cast Files btl_phosphate 0 · median 1.41 · 5.21 µmol/L (5th–95th percentile 0.25–3.05)
flags
CTD Cast Files btl_phosphate carries no quality code at the release grain; qual_ok keeps all 145,401.
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 · every month

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
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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.