Standard names: mass_concentration_of_phytoplankton_expressed_as_carbon_in_sea_water

[EDescourvieres]

Proposer's name Emmanuelle DESCOURVIERES (on behalf of the NECCTON project and Copernicus Marine Service)
Date 8 June 2026

we would like to propose the following standard name:
mass_concentration_of_phytoplankton_expressed_as_carbon_in_sea_water, similar to the existing standard name "mass_concentration_of_zooplankton_expressed_as_carbon_in_sea_water"

• Description
  "Mass concentration" means mass per unit volume and is used in the construction "mass_concentration_of_X_in_Y", where X is a material constituent of Y. A chemical species or biological group denoted by X may be described by a single term such as "nitrogen" or a phrase such as "nox_expressed_as_nitrogen". The phrase "expressed_as" is used in the construction A_expressed_as_B, where B is a chemical constituent of A. It means that the quantity indicated by the standard name is calculated solely with respect to the B contained in A, neglecting all other chemical constituents of A. Phytoplankton are algae that grow where there is sufficient light to support photosynthesis.

• Units
  kg m-3 (SI) or g m-3

Thank you in advance,
Best regards,

Emmanuelle

[github-actions]

Thank you for your proposal. These terms will be added to the cfeditor (http://cfeditor.ceda.ac.uk/proposals/1) shortly. Your proposal will then be reviewed and commented on by the community and Standard Names moderator.

[JonathanGregory]

That looks fine to me, @EDescourvieres, thanks. As well as being like the corresponding zooplankton name, there's also an analogous mole_concentration_of_phytoplankton_expressed_as_carbon_in_sea_water in the standard name table. The canonical units for mass concentration are kg m-3 in CF.

[EDescourvieres]

Hello @JonathanGregory,
Thank you for your quick response.
Best regards,
Emmanuelle

[marian-osei92]

Hi @EDescourvieres. Thank you for your proposal. It has been added to the cfeditor [https://cfeditor.ceda.ac.uk/proposal/5907](https://cfeditor.ceda.ac.uk/proposal/5907). The syntax matches existing names and the units are fine. Using our standard description text, the description for the name would be as follows:

mass_concentration_of_phytoplankton_expressed_as_carbon_in_sea_water

"Mass concentration" means mass per unit volume and is used in the construction "mass_concentration_of_X_in_Y", where X is a material constituent of Y. A chemical species or biological group denoted by X may be described by a single term such as "nitrogen" or a phrase such as "nox_expressed_as_nitrogen". Phytoplankton are algae that grow where there is sufficient light to support photosynthesis. The phrase "expressed_as" is used in the construction "A_expressed_as_B", where B is a chemical constituent of A. It means that the quantity indicated by the standard name is calculated solely with respect to the B contained in A, neglecting all other chemical constituents of A. Standard names also exist for the mass concentration of a number of components that make up the total phytoplankton population, such as diatoms, diazotrophs, calcareous phytoplankton, picophytoplankton and miscellaneous phytoplankton.

This name is ready to be accepted for publication in the standard name table. I will add the 7 day label and if no further comments are received in the next week, the name will be marked as accepted.

Marian

[marian-osei92]

No further comments have been received during the past seven days, the proposed name has now been accepted and will be added to the Standard Name Table.