Determination of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content in sinking particles at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site from December 1988 to December 2023 using a Particle Interceptor Trap System (PITS)

Data presented here contain 35 years of elemental sinking fluxes of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus (C, N, P) from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site from December 1988 (BATS Cruise 3) through December 2023 (BATS Cruise 411). The BATS program uses a method developed by Knauer et al. (1979) which was used extensively in the VERTEX program. In summary, to trap oceanic sediment flux, BATS uses a floating array comprised of polycarbonate tubes (7 cm diameter by 53 cm height) containing a buffered brine solution, with polycarbonate filters at the bottom to collect flux. Four tubes are deployed at each depth (150, 200, and 300 meters) and three additional tubes for blank counts are prepared but not deployed. The floating sediment trap array with collection tubes is deployed during monthly BATS cruises for a target time of 72 hours, but deployment time is subject to change depending on weather and/or emergency conditions. After recovery, the filters are examined under a microscope to remove swimming zooplankton caught on the traps to prevent skewed end results. Three samples from each depth are acidified to remove inorganic carbon before measuring organic carbon and nitrogen using a CE440 Elemental Analyzer, while the remaining non-acidified sample is used for total carbon estimates. Additional tubes are also prepared and deployed (three per depth) for phosphorus samples that are analyzed at Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences using a separate analytical procedure supervised by Dr. Michael Lomas.