Calcite Concentration, Calcification, and Photosynthesis Measured during the U.S. JGOFS Arabian Sea Process Study

Eleven cruises took place aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson for about sixteen months from October 1994 until January 1996. These cruises provided seasonal coverage of the annual monsoon and inter-monsoon cycles in the area southeast of Oman - from where the cruises were staged.

The monsoons of the Arabian Sea drive a uniquely intense carbon cycling system, and it is the goal of JGOFS to better understand the role of the oceans in global carbon cycling. Suspended calcite concentration (CaCO3), calcification rate, and photosynthesis rate were measured from water samples collected at various depths on cruises TTN-049 and TTN-053. The water samples were incubated with carbon-14, a radioactive label to measure the production of calcite by coccolithophores.