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2021 Organic Matter Research Lab Vectorized Fluorescence Data

Metadata Updated: January 6, 2026

The USGS CAWSC Organic Matter Research Laboratory (OMRL) provides laboratory services and support to regional and national projects in the analysis of organic matter using the latest methods in absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. Optical measurements such as absorbance and fluorescence are used to gain insight into dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition, and can also serve as proxies for more expensive and difficult to obtain measurements. These techniques are relatively rapid and inexpensive and allow for the comprehensive tracking of DOM dynamics in aquatic ecosystems ranging from rivers and lakes to estuaries to open marine systems. Absorbance spectra and fluorescence matrices were simultaneously collected on filtered water samples at room temperature (21 °C) in an acid-cleaned 1 cm quartz cuvette using a spectrofluorometer equipped with a charge-coupled device (CCD) (Aqualog®, Horiba Instruments, New Jersey, U.S.A.). Excitation and absorbance scans were performed using a double-grating monochrometer, a 150 W Xenon arc lamp, a 5 nm bandpass, and a 1 s integration time at wavelengths of 240-800 nm. Emission spectra were collected with a CCD at approximately 2.3 nm (4 pixel) intervals at wavelengths of 245–800 nm. Excitation and absorbance wavelengths were scanned from low to high energy (i.e., VIS to UV) to reduce UV exposure of the sample, thus limiting the effects of photobleaching during analysis. Laboratory fluorescence measurements collected on the Aqualog can provide validation or verification of field-based instrument fluorescence measurements where the sensor arrays are encompassed by the full Aqualog array (Booth and others, 2023). This approach may be superior to the other correction approaches where interferences are large, especially in cases where the field sensor measurements constitute less than 10% of the fully corrected value. For projects that already collect discrete samples during field sensor maintenance visits, the cost and effort is minimal for the data quality benefit. Data presented here were analyzed by the U.S Geological Survey California Water Science Center Organic Matter Research Lab, Sacramento CA. This release contains vectorized fluorescence data measured on the Aqualog ® fluorometer January-December 2021.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 6, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 6, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 6, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_63eebfced34efa0476afacbd
Data Last Modified 2023-11-06T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 62caafa9-27c8-4efd-b5dc-8e4956e60972
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -121.6600, 38.0900, -121.0100, 38.7300
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 19863a231f784fa51a84c9b73106c1bb6c4d668b83c21fb8680e5c2615565671
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -121.6600, 38.0900, -121.6600, 38.7300, -121.0100, 38.7300, -121.0100, 38.0900, -121.6600, 38.0900}

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