Gulf of Mexico Marine Ecosystem Survey from Brine Disposal Project

August 1979 to September 1981 data from moored current meter casts and other instruments in the Gulf of Mexico. The dataset contains chemical, benthic organism, zooplankton, marine toxic substance, and fish/shellfish resource measurements. Data were submitted by Texas A&M University and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into standard formats.

Use Cases

• Analyze relationships between water chemistry parameters like salinity, phosphate, and dissolved oxygen with zooplankton abundance (F124 format).
• Model fish and shellfish distribution (F123 format) using environmental variables such as bottom temperature, current speed, and gear type.
• Investigate temporal trends in marine toxic substances and hydrocarbons (F069 format) over the two-year sampling period.
• Correlate benthic organism data (F132 format) with physical water column characteristics like temperature and density (sigma-t) from the F004 format.
• Study current velocity components (east-west and north-south) in relation to chemical dispersion and organism transport.

Strengths

• Data spans a 25-month continuous time series from 1979-08-30 to 1981-09-21.
• Processed into six standardized NODC formats (F004, F069, F123, F124, F132, F144) ensuring consistent structure.
• Includes multi-faceted measurements: chemistry, organisms, toxins, and physical oceanography from the same project.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and sample sizes are unknown.
• Data is over 40 years old and may not reflect current ocean conditions.
• Geographic coverage is limited to the specific Gulf of Mexico study sites for the Brine Disposal project.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Collected using moored current meter casts and other instruments during the Brine Disposal project.

Time Range

1979-08-30 to 1981-09-21

Freshness

null

Geography

Gulf of Mexico