REACH Gulf of Maine; Regional Ecology and Coastal Hydrography Data in the Western Gulf of Maine

REACH conducted monthly field investigations on the R/V Gulf Challenger to sample four stations along a cross-shelf transect off Portsmouth, NH in the Western Gulf of Maine. As of 2004, REACH cruises have been combined with the University of New Hampshire Coastal Observing Center's cruises across the Wilkinson Transect. Data collected on those cruises can be viewed and ordered from the Cruise Data Collection on WebCOAST. Missing data values are set to "nd".

CTD Variables: Temperature, salinity, conductivity, percent light transmission, fluorescence, PAR and sigma-t from the CTD cast at 1 m intervals. Sigma-t is a measure of density.

Hydrography Variables: Temperature, salinity, fluorescence, PAR, chlorophyll-a, nutrients and Alexandrium concentration. Alexandrium is a toxic dinoflagellate. Nutrients may include nitrate (NO3), ammonia (NH4), phosphate (PO4), silicate (SiO4), and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). Data are collected at up to five depths. Every 10-20 m intervals between 2 and 95 m depths.

Zooplankton Variables: Temperature, salinity, taxon name and abundance. Volume of water filtered and sample dilution (e.g., fraction of the zooplankton catch that was actually counted) are also provided. Varies by station; start and end depths for each net tow are recorded in the data holding.