14C assimilation (mean)
Mean 14C assimilation of replicates 1 and 2
mgC/m³/hldkey c14_meanno NERC concept says exactly thisseries c14_mean
CalCOFI holds 23,760 values of it from 2,290 sampling events in one dataset, 1984–2020, from the surface to 211 m. At 10–50 m it has risen 0.30 per decade since 1984.R Chlorophyll says how much plant life is there; the ¹⁴C incubation says how fast it is growing, and primary production is the term that connects the ocean’s plankton to the climate and to the fish.C
- 23,760
- values
- 7
- flagged
i
7 of these 23,760 values (under 0.1 %) are flagged by their provider as questionable or bad. The Explorer, the climatology and its anomalies leave them out; do the same when you read the data yourself (cc_qual_ok_sql()in calcofi4r,qual_ok_sql()in calcofi4py). - 1984–2020
- years
- 1
- dataset
- 0–211 m
- depth
- 11 of 12
- months
Measured in
1 dataset
i
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.
i
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.
-
series
c14_mean· source columnmean_as· flag columnmean_aqno bound declared no P01 concept 7 flagged
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 v2026.11.05, 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-querySELECT * FROM read_json('…/v2026.11.05/catalog.json')
-- objects[] WHERE table = 'obs_env'
-- AND partition_value = 'c14_mean'library(calcofi4r)
con <- cc_get_db() # the promoted release
tbl(con, "obs_env") |> filter(measurement_type %in% c("c14_mean"))import calcofi4py as cc
con = cc.cc_get_db()
con.sql("SELECT * FROM obs_env WHERE measurement_type IN ('c14_mean')").df()The structure dissolved inorganic carbon’s, standing in
ChEBI: “A one-carbon compound with formula CO2 in which the carbon is attached to each oxygen atom by a double bond. A colourless, odourless gas under normal conditions, it is produced during respiration by all animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend directly or indirectly on living or decaying plants for food.” · RDKit 2026.03.6 from the ChEBI SMILES (the molfile is vertical), in the page’s ink · CC BY 4.0. ChEBI’s roles are never shown.
How it is measured On-deck simulated in-situ incubator + shore-based scintillation counter
Triplicate 250 mL bottles (two light, one dark) from each depth are inoculated with 14C-labelled bicarbonate and incubated from local apparent noon to civil twilight in seawater-cooled, neutral-density-screened incubators that simulate the depth's light level; after filtration the fixed 14C is measured by scintillation counting ashore. (calcofi.org Bottle sampling methods)
- NaH14CO3 tracer added
- incubated at the simulated light level
- filtered, acidified, degassed 12 h
- scintillation-counted
Why it matters 4 ways to say it · EOV Phytoplankton biomass and diversity
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 · 3
- A dark bottle is incubated beside the lit ones so that whatever is taken up without light can be subtracted from the rest. needs a citation before it can be the pick
- GOOS asks Is the biomass of the ocean changing? source
- Wikipedia In ecology, primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide. It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through chemosynthesis, which uses the oxidation or reduction of inorganic chemical compounds as its source of energy. Primary production · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1374882454
The record’s own history 4 depth bands against the 1993–2013 normal
Each year against the normal i
Deeper than the climatology reaches: 4 values at 200–500 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.
i
Deeper than the climatology reaches: 4 values at 200–500 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 mgC/m³/hld · no bound declared declared · 7 flagged
mgC/m³/hld (mgC/m3/hld in metadata/measurement_type.csv)
details
- bounds
- No physical bound is declared for this series in metadata/measurement_type.csv, so nothing is enforced at the ingest and the range below is simply what the release carries.
- observed
- Hydrographic Bottle
c14_mean-0.22 · median 2.5 · 948.3 mgC/m³/hld (5th–95th percentile 0.09–34.9) - flags
- Hydrographic Bottle
c14_meanmean_aqon 7 of 23,760 rows:87; qual_ok keeps 23,753. The codes are this dataset's own vocabulary, uninterpreted. - 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 i
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.
i
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 0–211 m · 11 of 12 months
By depth i
Values per depth band at the release grain, one thin bar per series. The bands are the
record's own (0-10 … 2000+ m).
i
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.
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, v2026.11.05
Cite the release; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page — Hydrographic Bottle. The Explorer's Share → Cite writes it for the view you make.