PLEASE NOTE there is discrepancy between the content of actual data in this accession and the abstract information that was present in Thaila folder for this accession. Following abstract is based on the information from Thaila folder. MECCAS II (Microbial Exchanges and Coupling in Coastal Atlantic Systems) cruise data collected by the R/V Gyre at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Each of four MECCAS cruise data sets is divided into 3 files: File 1 contains underway surface mapping data. 12 parameters measured included location, temperature, salinity, ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, and silicate at +/- 0.03-0.1 uM. File 2 contains vertical profiles at stations along mapping routes; the same 12 parameters as described above were measured. File 3 contains vertical profiles at drogue stations; 96 parameters were measured. Parameters include CTD data, zooplankton data (biomass, heterotrophic and autotrophic grazing rates, and production rate estimates), bacteria data (cell count, estimated volume, nutrient assimilation, and production rate estimates), and nanoplankton data (abundance of pigmented and non-pigmented eukaryotes and estimates of bacterial removal rates). Nutrient data contained in File 3 includes dissolved free amino acids (carbon content in free glutamic acid, serine, glycine, and alanine). Data has been processed by NODC to the NODC standard Bathythermograph (XBT) (C116) format. The C116/C118 format contains temperature-depth profile data obtained using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) instruments. Cruise information, position, date and time were reported for each observation. The data record was comprised of pairs of temperature-depth values. Unlike the MBT Data File, in which temperature values were recorded at uniform 5 m intervals, the XBT data files contained temperature values at non-uniform depths. These depths were recorded at the minimum number of points ("inflection points") required to accurately define the temperature curve. Standard XBTs can obtain profiles to depths of either 450 or 760 m. With special instruments, measurements can be obtained to 1830 m. Prior to July 1994, XBT data were routinely processed to one of these standard types. XBT data are now processed and loaded directly in to the NODC Ocean Profile Data Base (OPDB). Historic data from these two data types were loaded into the OPDB.