Mid-Atlantic Shelf Water Chemistry and Benthic Organisms, 1976-1977

Mid-Atlantic continental shelf data collected from November 1976 to September 1977. The dataset contains water column physical and chemical measurements, including temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen, alongside benthic organism surveys with species abundance and biomass. Data were submitted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and processed by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) into standard formats F014 and F132.

Use Cases

• Modeling historical water column properties based on temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen measurements.
• Analyzing benthic species distribution and biomass based on survey data from grabs, trawls, or dredges.
• Studying nutrient dynamics in shelf waters based on nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and orthophosphate data.
• Correlating benthic community data with environmental conditions like sediment characteristics and bottom temperature.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific temporal range from 1976-11-03 to 1977-09 15.
• Includes multiple data types: physical water properties, chemical nutrients, and benthic organism surveys.
• Processed into standardized NODC formats (F014 and F132), suggesting a defined structure.

Limitations

• Last updated 1977-09-15 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Virginia Institute of Marine Science - Gloucester Point, submitted to NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Collected using current meter and bottle casts from the vessels H.J.W. FAY and CAPE HENLOPEN.

Time Range

1976-11-03 to 1977-09-15

Freshness

1977-09-15 00:00:00

Geography

Ocean Continental Shelf - Mid Atlantic (OCS - Mid Atlantic) project area.