Bacterial Community Profiling at Sewage Treatment Plant Outfalls in Penn Cove

NOAA researchers investigated microbial communities in Penn Cove, a water body impaired by low dissolved oxygen. Data collected across four seasons includes bacterial abundance, productivity, diversity, chlorophyll A, nutrient concentrations, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. The project aims to assess the influence of sewage treatment plant effluent and inform local management.

Use Cases

• Modeling relationships between nutrient concentrations and microbial productivity based on inorganic nutrient data.
• Assessing seasonal variation in bacterial community structure based on data collected across four seasons.
• Investigating the impact of treated sewage effluent on marine dissolved oxygen levels based on the study context.
• Correlating chlorophyll A levels with heterotrophic production to study microbial food webs.

Strengths

• Data includes multiple biological and physical parameters such as bacterial abundance, productivity, diversity, and nutrient concentrations.
• Sampling was conducted across four different seasons, allowing for temporal analysis.
• Data collection involved NOAA personnel, suggesting institutional oversight.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Field and lab analyses recorded in FileMaker Pro.

Time Range

Data collected across four seasons; specific years are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-14 22:50:56.418814; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Penn Cove in the Whidbey Basin, Puget Sound, Washington, USA.