Bacteriology Data from Delaware Bay and North Atlantic Ocean Buoy Casts

From November 5, 1976 to August 16, 1977, bacteriology data were collected via moored buoy casts and other instruments in the Delaware Bay and North Atlantic Ocean. The dataset was submitted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science as part of the Ocean Continental Shelf project and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into the standard F009 format. It records environmental conditions, physical measurements, and bacterial densities for heterotrophic, hydrocarbonoclastic, and halophilic bacteria.

Use Cases

• Analyzing correlations between environmental conditions (e.g., water temperature, sediment type) and bacterial density counts.
• Studying the spatial and temporal distribution of specific bacterial groups like hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria in coastal and shelf waters.
• Validating historical models of marine microbial ecology in the Mid-Atlantic region using standardized NODC F009 format data.

Strengths

• Data is structured according to the well-documented NODC F009 standard format, consisting of five distinct 80-character record types.
• Temporal coverage is precisely defined, spanning a continuous 9-month period from late 1976 to mid-1977.
• The dataset's cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its importance and enduring relevance for the scientific community.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date is reported as both 1977-08-16 and 2026-04-01 across sources, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Essential technical details are missing, including the specific column names, total row count, and exact file size.
• The license and specific authorship details are not provided in any source.

Provenance

Source

Virginia Institute of Marine Science - Gloucester Point, submitted to NOAA NCEI/NODC.

Collection Method

Collected using moored buoy casts and other instruments, processed to NODC F009 format.

Time Range

1976-11-05 to 1977-08-16

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:14:38.297851

Geography

Delaware Bay and North Atlantic Ocean