The Caribbean Time Series Program

The Department of Marine Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez maintains a (nominal) monthly time series at a station denoted Caribbean Time Series (CaTS) at 17o 38' N 67o 00' W, approximately 26 nautical miles off the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. CaTS provides an observing station for researchers interested in the assessment of the magnitude and periodicity of basin-scale phenomena affecting the optics and biogeochemistry of regional waters. Our research has focused on the characterization and understanding of seasonal and inter-annual variability of near-surface and sub-surface seawater features in the NE Caribbean Basin as affected by seasonal riverine intrusions and by anthropogenicaly driven climate change. Our long-term goal is to characterize the expression and modulation of processes related to biological productivity and carbon sequestration capacity of these waters. We here make available instrumental data sets for temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen. Other less complete data sets including extractive Chl a fluorometry , profiling optical data at SeaWiFS bands, and nitrate, nitrite ammonium, dissolved organic nitrogen, phosphate, silicate and nitrous oxide concentrations at standard oceanographic depths are available.