Abstract:

In an effort to understand the response and recovery of benthic microbial assemblages in sediments in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, we embarked on an intensive field survey in the Chandeleur Islands, an area heavily impacted by the spill. Field sites were selected representing an oiling gradient based on NOAA SCAT surveys over a range of habitats, including salt marsh, un-vegetated sand, and seagrass meadows. This dataset presents the water quality measurements taken during June and September 2015 and 2016 to encompass seasonal variability and establish baseline conditions to build other projects on.

Suggested Citation:

Alison Robertson, Katie Baltzer. 2017. Baseline site characteristics and seasonal water quality variability in the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from September and July of 2015 and 2016. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N73J3B21

Purpose:

In an effort to understand the response and recovery of benthic microbial assemblages in sediments in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, we embarked on an intensive field survey in the Chandeleur Islands, an area heavily impacted by the spill. This dataset provides a baseline characterization of each sampling location.

Data Parameters and Units:

Sampling Date: month, day and year when samples were collected, Site Name: name assigned to each site at the beginning of the sampling period (A,B,C1S,C2) cross reference in the dataset “ChandeleurBenzoAPyrene_Robertson_June2015.csv” (UDI: R4.x262.000:0013), Habitat Type: type of habitat where samples were collected, Latitude: measured in decimal degrees, Longitude: measured in decimal degrees, Time of Sampling: central daylight time, Water Depth (m): water depth measured in meters, Distance to Shore (m): distance from sample site to shore measured in meters, Water Temp (deg C): water temperature measured in Celsius (C), Salinity (ppt): salinity measured in psu, DO (mg/L): dissolved oxygen measured in milligrams per liter (mg L-1), pH: ph measured in unitless, Number of Sediment Cores : number of sediment cores collected; NOTE: ANY BLANK CELLS DENOTE DATA NOT COLLECTED

Methods:

YSI measurements, basic observations.

Individual Files: