EPA EMAP Database

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) monitor water and sediment conditions at costal estuary monitoring stations. Benthic grabs include identification of benthic and fish communities. Species assessments are available at OBIS. The OBIS compiled data includes species name, individual count, lat/lon, and some environmental correlates like depth and salinity. 

Dataset Location: OBIS EPA EMAP Database

Direct Download: OBIS EPA EMAP Database

Related Datasets: EMAP Benthic replicate abundance, grab and summary data - http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Metadata.do?Portal=GCMD&MetadataView=... (Similar for 2000 - 2004)

US National Coastal Assessment Data - http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/data/index.html

 Site Location: United States Coast

Site(s) Georeferenced: Yes

Timespan: 1990 - 2004

Sampling Frequency: annual; June - October

Data Collection Summary / Methods: From Benthic Grab Metadata - "One 'grab' sample was collected from each station using a Young-modified Van Veen or other comparable grab sampler. The grabs were nominally 440 cm2 in area and 10 cm deep. A sub-sample 2.5 cm in diameter and the depth of the grab was taken from each grab for grain-size analysis. The remaining sediments were live-sieved in the field with a 0.5 mm mesh screen. Organisms retained on the screen were placed in plastic containers and fixed in 10% buffered formalin with rose bengal stain for preservation. All taxa in a grab sample were sorted by a technician and then identified and counted by a skilled taxonomist. Only organisms larger than 0.5 mm were processed."

Sampling Stations Map (map broken?) - http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/data/mapuse.html

Data collected: From Benthic Grab Metadata - "For Benthic Grab Information, one record is presented for each grab collected at a station. The size of the grab sampler used to collect the sediment is reported, as well as the size of the area sampled. The Benthic Replicate Abundance data report the abundance of each benthic taxon found in grab, including the taxonomic name. The Benthic Summary Data reports summary data for each station, including total number of taxa and infauna taxa identified, total abundance of all organisms and total abundance of infaunal organisms." 

OBIS data schema: species name, individual count, date, location, temperature, depth, salinity, nitrogen, oxygen, silicate.

Known Issues: No metadata is available that acknowledges the sampling efforts from 1990-2000. We've assumed that the Benthic Grab Metadata are representative of the reported OBIS data.

Best Practices: tips for separating the wheat from the chaff
 
Conditions for use: 'freely available' and 'open-access' as per OBIS: http://iobis.org/about/vision

Citation/ Distributing Author: Data produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), http://www.epa.gov/emap/.

Supplemental resources:

US EPA EMAP - http://www.epa.gov/emap/

Benthig Grab 2000-2001 Metadata - http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/html/data/ncane2000/babun_NE2000.txt

US National Coastal Assessment - http://www.epa.gov/emap/nca/

EPA Gulf Ecology Division - http://www.epa.gov/ged/

 Available via the EcoData Retriever: No