Primary productivity and trace-metal contamination measurements from a clean rosette system versus ultra-clean Go-Flo bottles

Primary productivity rates, measured during the 1992 United States Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (U.S. JGOFS) Equatorial Pacific (EqPac) process study with a new Trace-Metal clean rosette system (TM rosette) designed to be trace-metal clean, agreed within 5% with those determined using ultra-clean procedures that were previously shown to be trace-metal clean. The TM rosette system did not inhibit phytoplankton primary productivity rates. Using the TM rosette system, there was no contamination of Co, Ni, Cu, Cd or Pb, and only slight contamination of Fe and Zn, relative to ultra-clean collection. However, the slight contaminations were below levels that affect primary productivity rates. Therefore, systematic phytoplankton inhibition by trace-metal contamination appears to have been successfully eliminated with water collected using the TM rosette system.