A principal activity of the OPPT has been the development of a primary productivity database. The database currently includes approximately 3,000 vertical profiles of ¹⁴C-based carbon fixation measurements from throughout the world's oceans. The database is continuously growing and will, in the future, also include the wealth of variable fluorescence data collected using the Fast-Repetition-Rate (FRR) fluorometer. A subset of the current database has already been used for developing the Vertically Generalized Production Model (VGPM) described by Behrenfeld and Falkowski (1997) (Photosynthetic rates derived from satellite-based chlorophyll concentration, Limnol. Oceanogr., 42(1), 1997, 1-20). This subset of data was also used for the intercomparision of primary production models as described in A Consumer's Guide to Phytoplankton Primary Productivity Models, (Limnol. Oceanogr., 42(7), 1997, 1479-1491).

The productivity database includes vertical profiles of carbon fixation (mgC/m³/d) as measured during 6 to 24 hr incubations. Depth-integrated carbon fixation (mgC/m²/d) is also provided, along with sea surface temperature (^oC), wavelength-integrated surface photosynthetically active radiation (PAR: mol quanta/m²/d), and the vertical distribution of chlorophyll (mgChl/m³). The database can be accessed directly or via the FTP protocol:

• Oceanographic Productivity Database
• ftp: anonymous@marine.rutgers.edu. If access to the ftp site is denied, please contact IMCS at
  vgpm@imcs.rutgers.edu. Please provide your ftp address and password to receive the file.