Hello Jonathan,
The problem is that these terms come from different communities, where they are in common usage. How do we decide which communities usage to adopt? Maybe sticking with the geochemists (who instinctively know what 'total iron' means) and being explicit with the biogeochemistry (i.e. biogenic_plus_lithogenic, organic_plus_inorganic) might be the way to go.
Cheers, Roy.
________________________________________
From: CF-metadata [cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Gregory [j.m.gregory at reading.ac.uk]
Sent: 06 December 2013 23:35
To: cf-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] standard names for sediment trap data
Dear Roy
> iron to total_iron (defined as all oxidation states)
> silica to total_silica (defined as biogenic + lithogenic)
> manganese to total_manganese (defined as all oxidation states)
I have reservations about that, because I think the word "total" is not self-
explanatory. You have to know what it's being contrasted with - as you can see
from the above, where it doesn't have a consistent meaning. I think that either
it has to be spelled out what is being included, or it's assumed by default
that *everything* is included by an unqualified species, and instead you add
extra words to be more specific.
Best wishes
Jonathan
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Received on Fri Dec 06 2013 - 18:21:30 GMT
