Benthic grab data from October 1999 in Apalachicola Bay, Florida

The Apalachicola Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the NOAA Office for Coastal Management worked together to map benthic habitats within Apalachicola Bay, Florida. The bay and the lower portions of four distributaries were surveyed on 11-22 October 1999 using three benthic sampling techniques. This data set represents the benthic community information gathered from grab sampling. Grabs were collected at 136 stations throughout the bay.

Original contact information:

Contact Org: NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Phone: 843-740-1202

Email: coastal.info@noaa.gov

Identification and enumeration of infauna, biomass, and benthic community parameters were measured from the benthic grab samples. These data were collected to examine community distributions throughout the Apalachicola Bay system.

10038

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within limits of the state of the art, NOAA will not assume any liability for damages caused by any inaccuracies in these data, or failure in their use.

None

It is the responsibility of the user to determine the appropriate use of the data product.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 4; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.3.0.800

In the laboratory, organisms were separated from the remaining debris by flotation and handpicking, identified by experienced taxonomists, and enumerated. Quality assurance and control measures at Barry Vittor and Associates included randomly selecting and reconstituting with the original debris 10% of the samples and repeating the entire separation, identification, and enumeration process. The quality assurance plan followed by Barry A. Vittor and Associates calls for all samples processed by a particular technician to be redone if the checks show that any of technician's work differs by more than 5% from the original results. For this project, all discrepancies were within 5%. The taxonomists previously worked on several projects from northern Florida and verified each other's identifications. When differences of opinion occurred or when significant doubt remained, outside specialists examined the specimens. Identifications were to the lowest practical identification level (LPIL) when not to the species level.

Stations were located in the field using a differential Global Positioning System (GPS), and station coordinates, date and time of day were recorded upon arrival at each station.

Not relevant to the data set.

All grab data were not included in this data layer. Abundances for taxonomic groups, community diversity, species richness, total abundance, and density per square meter were included in this data layer. Biomass data and abundance of individual species were not included, but these data can be found in the Apalachicola Bay benthic database, available from the NOAA Office for Coastal Management.

All data are believed to be logically consistent.