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Dissolved oxygen (ml/L)

Dissolved oxygen (QC'd)

ml/Lkey oxygen_ml_lNERC P01 DOXYZZXXP06 units UMLLone key across 2 datasetsseries oxygen_ml_l · oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr

CalCOFI holds 1,390,084 values of it from 36,658 sampling events in 2 datasets, 1949–2026, from the surface to 5,351 m. At 200–500 m it has fallen 0.13 per decade since 1984.R Below the mixed layer off Southern California oxygen has fallen since the 1980s and the hypoxic boundary has risen toward the shelf, squeezing the habitat of fish and invertebrates.C

1,390,084
values
1,455
flagged
i
1,455 of these 1,390,084 values (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).
1949–2026
years
2
datasets
0–5,351 m
depth
every month
months
O2 · dioxygen · 31.998 g/mol · CHEBI:15379Concentration of dissolved oxygen per unit volume of the water column. Oxygen may be expressed in terms of mass, volume or quantity of substance.

Measured in 2 datasets
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.

  • 725,629 values · 27,428 sampling events · 1949–2021 · 0–5,351 m · 220 grid cells · 563 cruises
    series oxygen_ml_l · source column o2ml_l · flag column o_qual 1,455 flagged · 0.2 %
  • 664,455 values · 9,230 sampling events · 1993–2026 · 1–3,630 m · 109 grid cells · 135 cruises
    series oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr · source column ox_ave_sta_corr · flag column ox_ave_sta_corr_q sensor mean
    DO average station-corrected

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

Every way in 9 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 · Hydrographic BottleCalCOFI's own server, the Hydrographic Bottle table constrained to this series
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/calcofi_bottle.html?&measurement_type=%22oxygen_ml_l%22
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=%22oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr%22
The structure O2 dioxygen
O2 dioxygen CHEBI:15379 · 31.998 g/mol · the_thing

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 Automated Winkler titrator, UV end-point detector at 350 nm
rosette bottle350 nm
Hydrographic Bottle · rosette bottle
Automated Winkler titrator, UV end-point detector

Carpenter's (1965) modification of Winkler's 1889 method: manganous hydroxide is oxidised by the sample's dissolved oxygen, acid frees iodine from iodide in proportion, thiosulfate titrates the iodine, and an automated titrator reads the end point by the UV absorbance of tri-iodide rather than the visible starch-iodine color. (calcofi.org Bottle sampling methods)

  • Mn2+ + 2OH- -> Mn(OH)2
  • 2Mn(OH)2 + O2 -> 2MnO(OH)2
  • MnO(OH)2 + 4H+ + 2I- -> Mn2+ + I2 + 3H2O
  • I2 titrated with thiosulfate
flag o_qual1,455 flagged
Bottle sampling methods on calcofi.org ↗
Why it matters 7 ways to say it · EOV Oxygen

Essential Ocean Variable
Oxygen

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

GOOS asks

  • How large are the ocean’s “dead zones” and how fast are they changing?
  • Is the biomass of the ocean changing?

GOOS specification sheet ↗ · quoted, not copied

other ways to say why · 6
  • authored Oxygen is the balance of what the ocean takes in at the surface and what animals and bacteria use below; a warmer ocean holds less and mixes less, so it is losing oxygen. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • authored Warming thins the oxygen the surface layer can hold, and the upper ocean has been losing it for decades across the North Pacific, not only here. needs a citation before it can be the pick
  • GOOS asks How large are the ocean’s “dead zones” and how fast are they changing? source
  • GOOS asks Is the biomass of the ocean changing? source
  • Wikipedia Hypoxia (environmental) source
  • Wikipedia Ocean deoxygenation is the reduction of the oxygen content in different parts of the ocean due to human activities. There are two areas where this occurs. Ocean deoxygenation · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1354922617
The record’s own history 6 depth bands against the 1993–2013 normal

Each year against the normal
i

Deeper than the climatology reaches: 18,491 values at 1000–2000 m, 6,978 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 ml/L · -0.5 … 15 declared · 1,455 flagged

ml/L · P06 units UMLL

bounds-0.5 … 15 ml/Lobserved-0.01 … 14.68 ml/Lflagged1,455baselineclimatology ✓
details
bounds
The registry declares -0.5 … 15 ml/L for oxygen_ml_l · oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr; a value outside it is dropped at the ingest (drop_out_of_bounds()).
observed
Hydrographic Bottle oxygen_ml_l -0.01 · median 3.45 · 11.13 ml/L (5th–95th percentile 0.36–6.05)
CTD Cast Files oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr 0 · median 2.667 · 14.68 ml/L (5th–95th percentile 0.3829–5.954)
flags
Hydrographic Bottle oxygen_ml_l o_qual on 29,894 of 725,629 rows: 6 28,439 · 8 1,455; qual_ok keeps 724,174. The codes are this dataset's own vocabulary, uninterpreted.
CTD Cast Files oxygen_ml_l_ave_sta_corr carries no quality code at the release grain (its source column is ox_ave_sta_corr_q); qual_ok keeps all 664,455.
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.

By depth · by month 0–5,351 m · every month

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).

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 — Hydrographic Bottle, CTD Cast Files. The Explorer's Share → Cite writes it for the view you make.