The dataset contains physical, biological and chemical oceanographic measurements, and meteorological data. Hydrographic measurements include temperature, salinity, current velocities, attenuance, dissolved oxygen and fluorescence, while water samples were analysed for concentrations of nutrients, pigments, suspended particulates, metals and halocarbons. Samples were also collected for phytoplankton and zooplankton analyses, while results from production experiments are also included in the data set. These oceanographic data are supplemented by surface meteorological measurements. The data were collected at 357 sites in the NE Atlantic, 308 of which are from cruises centering on 20 W, 47 to 60 N, 16 from the Cape Verde Islands and 33 in a coccolithophore bloom just south of Iceland. Measurements were taken from 3 cruises in 1989, 6 cruises in 1990 and 2 cruises in 1991. The data were collected via (i) underway sampling (SeaSoar Undulating Oceanographic Recorder (UOR), hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), meteorology and surface ocean parameters) of which there are 793430 records at 30 second intervals from 11 cruises and (ii) discrete sampling (conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts, bottle stations, net hauls, productivity incubations, stand alone pump (SAP) and sediment trap deployments, cores) of which there are 2215 deployments/experiments. The aim of the Biogeochemical Ocean Flux Study (BOFS) Community Research Project was to study the role of oceans in the global cycling of carbon. The data were collected and supplied by UK participants in the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) had responsibility for calibrating, processing, quality controlling and documenting the data and assembling the final data set. The underway data are stored as time series for each cruise merged with the navigation data. The data are fully quality controlled. Checks were made for instrument malfunction, fouling, constant values, spikes, spurious values, calibration errors and baseline corrections. The discrete data are stored in a relational database (Oracle RDBMS), mainly as vertical profiles and are uniquely identified by a combination of deployment number and depth.

The dataset comprises hydrographic data, including salinity, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, transmittance (for suspended sediment), chlorophyll, irradiance, and current velocities. Both oceanographic and benthic measurements of nutrients (nitrate, nitrite, silicate, phosphate and ammonium), phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance, dissolved and particulate trace metals, primary and bacterial production, sulphur compounds and halocarbons were collected, as well as atmospheric physical and chemical measurements. The data were collected in the North Sea between August 1988 and October 1990 over a series of 38 cruises on RRS Challenger. Oceanographic measurements were taken using hydrographic profilers, moored instruments and shipboard underway systems. Underway meteorological data were also collected in addition to a comprehensive atmospheric sampling programme. Both continuous and discrete water samples were collected, providing biogeochemical and biological data. These were supplemented by net hauls. Benthic processes were investigated with sediment cores taken on eight survey cruises at six sites of varied character, three being in the area of summer stratification. Water and benthic sample analyses were supplemented by results of seabed and shipboard incubation experiments. The North Sea Project evolved from a NERC review of shelf seas research, which identified the need for a concerted multidisciplinary study of circulation, transport and production. The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), now the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) hosted the project. It involved over 200 scientists and support staff from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF - now DEFRA) and other academic institutes. The data are held at the British Oceanographic Data Centre and are available on CD-ROM.

The dataset comprises hydrographic profiles (temperature, salinity, oxygen, fluorometer, transmissometer, irradiance) and along track measurements (bathymetry, surface meteorology, sea surface hydrography), with discrete measurements including water chemistry (organic and inorganic nutrients, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, dissolved gases, trace metals), biology (phytoplankton, zooplankton, primary production, community respiration, chlorophyll, pigments) and atmospheric particulates (major ions, organics and trace metals). Data have been collected from meridional transects of the Atlantic Ocean (between the UK and the Falkland Islands, South Africa or South America) from 1995 to the present day. The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) programme aims to study the factors determining the ecological and biogeochemical variability of planktonic ecosystems in the tropical and temperate Atlantic Ocean, and their links to atmospheric processes. The majority of the data are available to academia for re-use and re-purpose but data from recent cruises may be subject to a moratorium which allows first use for data originators. The AMT is coordinated by Andy Rees (AMT Principal Investigator) and Miss Dawn Ashby (AMT Project Officer) at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in conjunction with the National Oceanography Centre. Since its inception the programme has involved researchers from several different countries and has acted as a platform for national and international collaboration. Data are managed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.