Dear John G.,
Some time ago you proposed a standard name
net_primary_production_of_carbon_per_unit_volume_in_sea_water with canonical
units of kg m-3 s-1.
The proposal is certainly consistent with the syntax of existing
productivity_of_carbon names. However, there ensued some discussion as to
whether production|productivity_of_carbon means the same as
production|productivity_of_biomass_expressed_as_carbon. I think the answer to
this question is actually 'yes'. The definitions even say ' "Production of
carbon" refers to the production of biomass expressed as the mass of carbon
which it contains.' I think we need to be careful to retain the terms
"productivity" or "production" of carbon as part of the names because these
are the terms widely used and understood by the land surface modellers and
ocean biogeochemists. However, in the interests of making standard names as
standard as possible, I suggest that we should in fact insert "expressed_as".
For example, net_primary_mole_productivity_of_carbon_by_diatoms would become
net_primary_mole_productivity_of_biomass_expressed_as_carbon_by_diatoms and
your proposed name would beco
me
net_primary_production_of_biomass_expressed_as_carbon_per_unit_volume_in_sea_water.
The change would affect eleven existing names. Would that be acceptable? Does
anyone else object to the change?
Regarding the definition of the proposed name, I see that you have tried to
make it consistent with existing net_primary_productivity names. Looking
through the standard name table I have found that we have two versions of the
wording that have been tailored to land based or ocean based photosynthesis,
respectively. See, for example, the definition of
net_primary_mole_productivity_of_carbon_by_diatoms versus that of
net_primary_productivity_of_carbon_accumulated_in_leaves. I think it would be
better to settle on a single wording for all
net_primary_production/productivity names, regardless of where the process is
taking place, so I suggest the following:
" "Production of carbon" refers to the production of biomass expressed as the
mass of carbon which it contains. Net primary production is the excess of gross
primary production (rate of synthesis of biomass per unit volume from inorganic
precursors) by autotrophs ("producers"), for example, photosynthesis in
plants or phytoplankton, over the rate at which the autotrophs themselves
respire some of this biomass. "
Is this OK? If so, I will amend the definitions of the existing names to all
have consistent wording.
Thanks for your patience,
Alison
------
Alison Pamment Tel: +44 1235 778065
NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre Email: [email protected]
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
R25, 2.22
Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CF-metadata [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
> Of John Graybeal
> Sent: 02 July 2013 22:56
> To: CF Metadata List
> Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] new standard name for primary production of
> carbon per unit volume
>
> As of June 5 this revised name was requested to go with the previously
> submitted definition:
>
> On Jun 5, 2013, at 11:38, John Graybeal <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > So I think we have the replacement name of
> > net_primary_production_of_carbon_per_unit_volume_in_sea_water
> > pending further thoughts and responses.
>
> There has been some discussion (thank you), but to my knowledge, no
> outstanding requests for changes since that posting.
>
> In the definition below, I've modified bits of that definition to match the
> new term (production). Is this request approvable at this point?
>
> Name: net_primary_production_of_carbon_per_unit_volume_in_sea_water
> Units: kg m-3 s-1
> Definition: Net primary production is the excess of gross primary production
> (rate of synthesis of biomass per unit volume from inorganic precursors by
> autotrophs, or "producers", especially by photosynthesising plants using
> sunlight for energy) over the rate at which they themselves respire some of
> this biomass (plant_respiration, assuming all producers to be plants).
> "Production of carbon" refers to the production of biomass expressed as the
> mass of carbon which it contains.
>
> John
>
> ------------------------------------
> John Graybeal
> Senior Data Manager, Metadata and Semantics
>
> Marinexplore
> 920 Stewart Drive
> Sunnyvale, CA
>
>
>
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