Gulf of Mexico Marine Ecology and Pollution Survey Data 1978-1979

NOAA NCEI Accession 8000022 contains CTD profiles, benthic organism surveys, marine invertebrate pathology, and toxic substance measurements from the Gulf of Mexico. Data were collected from multiple platforms, including the SEA TRANSPORTER, between May 1978 and January 1979. The dataset was submitted by the South West Research Institute in Houston with support from the Ocean Continental Shelf program.

Use Cases

• Analyze relationships between bottom temperature, salinity, and benthic species abundance from F132 survey data.
• Model disease frequency in marine invertebrates against ambient toxic substance concentrations reported in the file.
• Create time-series profiles of water column density (sigma-t) and dissolved oxygen from high-resolution F022 CTD casts.
• Assess lesion size and location in individual specimens against environmental conditions using F063 pathology records.
• Correlate sediment characteristics from F132 surveys with the biological condition of selected benthic specimens.

Strengths

• Data integrates multiple formats (F022, F063, F132) covering physical, biological, and pathological measurements.
• High-resolution CTD profiles report parameters at depth intervals as fine as 1 meter.
• Temporal coverage spans a defined period from 20 May 1978 to 15 January 1979.
• Includes species-level data with NODC Taxonomic Codes for specimen identification.

Limitations

• Sample size is unknown, as row counts for each data format are not provided.
• Data is temporally stale, with the last collection date in January 1979.
• Geographic coverage is limited to the Gulf of Mexico, introducing regional bias.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), submitted by South West Research Institute.

Collection Method

Collected using CTD casts, net casts, grab/core sampling, trawls, and other field instruments.

Time Range

1978-05-20 to 1979-01-15

Freshness

null

Geography

Gulf of Mexico