Hi John,

Production per unit volume is the usual parameter measured in the oceans. What 
is usually done is to measure this at maybe half a dozen depths at a given 
position between the surface and 100m and then there is an integration 
procedure that can be done on this dataset to produce a single value of 
production per unit area for that position - I guess with the objective of 
making oceanographic data compatible with terrestrial for global aggregates.

The tow oceanographic parameters have different dimensionality and therefore 
need to be described by different standard names.

Cheers, Roy.

________________________________________
From: CF-metadata [[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Graybeal 
[[email protected]]
Sent: 04 November 2013 15:55
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] new standard name for primary production of  carbon 
per unit volume

Hi Alison,

First change is fine by me.

Second change is fine for _my_ request. I note that most terms to date (and all 
terrestrial terms?) consider productivity per unit area; mine is the first, or 
one of the first, that is per unit volume. (The difference is reflected in the 
units.)  The definition of "net primary production" needs to either be written 
generically (e.g., "per unit area or volume according to the units"), or we'll 
need two different concepts.  (I vaguely recall a notion that productivity 
could be by unit area and production by unit volume, but have no personal 
expertise.)

John


On Nov 4, 2013, at 01:33, [email protected] wrote:

> 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 be
 co
> 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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------------------------------------
John Graybeal
Sr. Data Manager, Metadata & Semantics

M +1 408 675-5545
skype: graybealski
Marinexplore
920 Stewart Drive
Sunnyvale 94085
California, USA
www.marinexplore.com

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