The BATS Data

BATS scientists make monthly measurements of important physical, chemical, and biological properties throughout the water column in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. These include measurements of ocean properties such as temperature, salinity, depth, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, fluorescence, phytoplankton pigments, and bacteria abundance.

The BATS scientists also measure the rate at which various ocean processes occur, such as the rate of plant photosynthesis or "primary production." They also measure rates of bacterial growth and particle flux (sinking of dead plants, and other detritus, from surface waters). Scientists in BATS and its related programs also study zooplankton biomass and species composition and the abundance and diversity of other organisms further up the food chain.

The Ocean Properties and Ocean Rates pages describe the nature and importance of these property and rate measurements, and explain how the measurements are made.