Dataset: Dissolved trace metals and macronutrients from samples collected using a tow-fish system on R/V Melville MV1405 (IRN-BRU) cruise in the California Current System in July 2014

Nitrate-nitrite, Phosphate, Silicate, Nitrite: 

Samples were collected from a trace-metal clean towed-fish system (Bruland et al., 2001) (transects), from teflon-coated Go-Flos on a non-metal line, and from the ship's rosette. Samples were analyzed shortly after collection at sea using standard spectrophotometric methods (Parsons 1984) on a Lachat QuickChem 8000 Flow Injection Analysis System.

Dissolved trace metals:

Depth profiles were taken using individual teflon-coated GoFlo bottles on a non-metal line, which were sampled in a trace metal clean van at sea. Surface samples for transects were sampled using a tow-fish system (Bruland et al., 2001). Samples were filtered directly from the GoFlo through 0.2 μm Acropak Supor membrane capsule filters into pre-cleaned LDPE bottles. The acropaks were pre-cleaned and flushed with at least 250 mL of sample before sampling. Sample bottles were pre-cleaned cleaned rigorously as per the GEOTRACES cookbook (Cutter et al., 2014), and were rinsed with sample three times before filling. Samples were acidified at sea to a pH of ~1.7 with quartz-distilled 6 M HCl (4 mL per liter) and stored for analysis post-cruise. Samples were analyzed for trace metals after the cruise with the method of Biller and Bruland (2012), with modifications as described in Parker et al. (2016). Briefly, this involves buffering the seawater to pH 6.0 ± 0.2 immediately before pre-concentrating on PA1 resin. The resin was extracted with 1 N optima nitric acid with rhodium as an internal standard. Extracts were analyzed on the Thermo Fisher Element 2 extended range ICP-MS at UC Santa Cruz. 

Iron was additionally analyzed shipboard with a flow injection analysis method published in Lohan et al. (2006) with modifications as described in Biller et al. (2013). Briefly, this method involves pre-concentrating the iron on a toyopearl column at pH 2, eluting it into a buffered (pH ~5.7) reaction stream that contains DPD, a molecule that turns pink when oxidized by iron. H2O2 is also in the reaction stream, which re-oxidizes the iron, so that each iron molecule can react with multiple DPD molecules, another mechanism to increase the iron signal. The reaction stream absorbance is measured with a flow through spectrophotometer. 

Generally, the measurements from these two methods for Fe agreed well; where there was a problem with one or the other dataset, we only report one dataset.