Delaware Bay Water Quality Measurements from 40 Cruises

40 oceanographic cruises collected discrete chemical, hydrographic, and biological observations in Delaware Bay between May 1978 and October 1985. Dr. Jonathan H. Sharp of the University of Delaware submitted the data, which was later copied to the NODC data storage system. The original files are noted as being unopenable without specific utility programs.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in chemical concentrations across 40 cruises from 1978 to 1985.
• Correlate hydrographic data with biological observations to study ecosystem dynamics in Delaware Bay.
• Use cruise reference numbers (l00614-l00653) to cross-reference and validate data from other sources.

Strengths

• Data from 40 distinct oceanographic cruises provides multiple sampling events.
• Records span over 7 years (May 1978 to October 1985), offering a multi-year perspective.
• Contains a multi-faceted dataset with chemical, hydrographic, and biological data per record.

Limitations

• As of December 2004, the files could not be opened, indicating potential data accessibility issues.
• No documentation or DDF is available, complicating data interpretation and use.
• The required utility programs for converting data to Lotus 1-2-3, DBASE-III, and Reflex are not provided.

Provenance

Source

Dr. Jonathan H. Sharp, University of Delaware, via NOAA NCEI (Accession 8900151).

Collection Method

Discrete quality observations collected on oceanographic cruises.

Time Range

May 1978 to October 1985.

Freshness

Data collection ended in October 1985; the dataset is historical.

Geography

Delaware Bay.