These nutrient profile data were collected by the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer on the western Antarctic shelf in support of the GLOBEC project, April - June 2001 (NODC Accession 0000786)

GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics) was initiated by SCOR and the IOC of UNESCO in 1991, to understand how global change will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations comprising a major component of oceanic ecosystems. The aim of GLOBEC is to advance our understanding of the structure and functioning of the global ocean ecosystem, its major subsystems, and its response to physical forcing so that a capability can be developed to forecast the responses of the marine ecosystem to global change.全球海洋生态系统动力学（GLOBEC，Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics）于1991年由海洋研究科学委员会（SCOR）与联合国教科文组织政府间海洋学委员会（IOC）联合发起，旨在探究全球变化将如何影响构成海洋生态系统核心组成部分的海洋生物种群的丰度、多样性与生产力。 该计划的目标在于深化对全球海洋生态系统的结构、运行机制、主要子系统及其对物理强迫的响应的认知，进而形成预测海洋生态系统对全球变化响应的能力。