Factors Affecting Primary Production Invention
Your Objective
What can you observe about the relationship between light, nutrients, temperature, and primary production in the Southern Hemisphere Polar Pacific Ocean?
Select a parameter:
Data Tips
When the site loads, you will be able to see the chlorophyll a concentration dataset from the Global Southern Ocean Apex surface Mooring (12/2018 - 10/2019). You can interact with your data by turning on and off different factors to see if they correlate to the chlorophyll data.
Questions for Thought
- Notice the months and dates along the X-axis. Think about where this data was obtained.
- Which months are summer?
- Which months are winter?
- Describe the pattern of primary productivity for the time frame shown.
- What abiotic factors do you think will impact primary production?
- Toggle factors on and off to help you understand the relationships between abiotic factors and primary production.
- Examine each data set based on the following:
- Primary Production (chlorophyll a)
- Nutrients (nitrates)
- Light (spectral irradiance)
- Temperature (°C)
- Compare primary productivity and nutrients; explain any relationships you observe.
- Compare primary productivity and light; explain any relationships you observe.
- Compare primary productivity and temperature; explain any relationships you observe.
- Synthesize your observations by explaining which factors lead to the pattern of primary productivity shown.
Background Information
Click on the images below to learn more about where and how the dataset above was collected.
Dataset Information
The data for this activity was obtained from the following instruments on the Global Souther Ocean Surface Mooring.
- Fluorometer (GS01SUMO-RID16-02-FLORTD000)
- Nitrate (GS01SUMO-RID16-07-NUTNRB000)
- Spectral Irradiance (GS01SUMO-RID16-08-SPKIRB000)
- CTD (GS01SUMO-RID16-03-CTDBPF000)
Telemetered datasets were downloaded from the OOI data portal, and then daily (mean) averages of temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, salinity-corrected-nitrate and downwelling spectral irradiance were calculated and merged together into a single file.
See this Jupyter Notebook for details on how the data for this activity was processed.
Activity Citation: Anastasia, J., DiSantis, D., Iacchei, M., & Lichtenwalner, C. S. (2020). Factors Affecting Primary Production. OOI Data Labs Collection.