Panama Oil Spill Ecological Assessment Data 1986-1991

May 1986 to October 1991 data documents the environmental impact of a major April 1986 oil spill near the Panama Canal. The dataset, collected by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute under U.S. government contracts, covers chemical analysis of the oil and effects on seven distinct environments including seagrass, coral, and mangrove communities. Results were published in a 1993 technical report by the Minerals Management Service.

Use Cases

• Analyzing chemical composition changes of spilled oil over time.
• Assessing mortality and recovery rates in coral reef communities post-spill.
• Comparing ecological damage across different habitats like mangroves and seagrass beds.
• Studying the long-term biological effects of oil pollution in a tropical marine reserve.
• Using the multi-year baseline for modeling environmental recovery timelines.

Strengths

• Data collection spans over 5 years (May 1986 to October 1991), providing a substantial temporal record.
• Study design includes 8 subprojects covering oil chemistry and 7 distinct marine environments.
• Research was conducted in a biological reserve with 15 years of pre-spill baseline data available for context.
• Findings are peer-reviewed and published in an official technical report (Keller and Jackson, 1993).

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown across all sources.
• Data from an additional year of study and all pre-spill baseline information are explicitly excluded from this accession.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' metadata, with dates ranging from 1991-10 31 to 2026-03-05.

Provenance

Source

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), under contract to the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

Collection Method

Field data collection following a major oil spill, organized into 8 subprojects for chemical and ecological analysis.

Time Range

1986-05 to 1991-10

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:35:06.110131

Geography

Caribbean coast of Panama, east of the Panama Canal entrance, including a STRI biological reserve.