Gulf of Mexico Phytoplankton and Benthic Organism Surveys from 1982-1983

NOAA NCEI Accession 8400200 contains data on benthic organisms and phytoplankton collected in the Gulf of Mexico. Texas A&M University submitted the data, collected from the CAPT. BRADY J and other platforms between October 1982 and November 1983. The data are processed to NODC standard formats F028 for phytoplankton and F132 for benthic organisms.

Use Cases

• Analyze phytoplankton species counts and carbon concentration by sampling depth and position to model historical primary productivity.
• Study benthic organism biomass and individual counts per species in relation to bottom temperature, salinity, and sediment characteristics.
• Correlate meteorological and sea surface conditions recorded at sampling sites with phytoplankton cell concentration and benthic species abundance.
• Map the spatial distribution of specific phytoplankton and benthic species using station position data collected over the 13-month survey period.

Strengths

• Data spans a 13-month time range from October 1982 to November 1983, providing seasonal coverage.
• Includes two standardized NODC formats (F028, F132) with documented structures for phytoplankton and benthic data.

Limitations

• Dataset is over 40 years old, limiting its utility for analyzing current ecosystem states.
• Specific row counts, column details, and sample sizes are unknown from the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), submitted by Texas A&M University.

Collection Method

Collected using sediment sampler and net casts from research vessels.

Time Range

1982-10-10 to 1983-11 30

Freshness

Last updated 1983-11-30; static historical dataset.

Geography

Gulf of Mexico