U.S. EPA: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) data

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Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?
    Title:
    U.S. EPA: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) data
    Abstract:
    The EMAP National Coastal Database contains estuarine and coastal data that EMAP and Regional-EMAP have collected since 1990 from thousands of stations along the U.S. coasts. These data include water column data, sediment contaminants and toxicity data, and benthic macroinvertebrate and demersal fish community and contaminant data.

  1. How should this data set be cited?

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), 2001, U.S. EPA: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) data.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -81.730500
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -69.941000
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.191700
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 27.201200

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Beginning_Date: October 1994
    Ending_Date: October 2000
    Currentness_Reference: ground condition

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: tabular digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Entity point (1671)

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000000. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000000. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1927.
      The ellipsoid used is Clarke 1866.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378206.400000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/294.978698.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    emap

    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI)

    Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI)

    Coordinates defining the features.

    LATITUDE
    Latitude of coordinate position (Source: Source report)

    LONGITUDE
    Longitude of coordinate position (Source: Source report)

    SITENAME
    Survey or laboratory code for site (Source: Data compiler)

    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    The following fields were entered into usSEABED: SFS data: Variables: STA_NAME Station name: STATION Station Name / SITE Station name:EVNTDATE Event Date / DATE Sample collection date (YYMMDD):DEPTH,Depth (m):LATDEG,Latitude (decimal degrees):LNGDEG,Longitude (decimal degrees):SYSTEM,Large water body system Metadata:STA_TYPE:CLASCODE:STRATA:STA_AREA:STATE:EMAPSTAT:ORGSTATN:ORG_CODE:STA_SYS:SEGMENT:MAIASTAT:NUM_VIS:N_GRABS:BENGRAB:LABCODE:QACODE 0,TXR: SAND:SILT:CLAY:SICL SICL Mean silt/clay (%) per grab SAND Sand (%) in sample SILT Silt (%) in sample CLAY Clay (%) in sample SICL Silt/clay (%) in sample CMP data: TOC Total organic carbon (%) in sample ACU data: MOIST Mean moisture (%) per grab ENV data:RPD Redox Potential Discontinuity: mean depth (mm) TRB data: SECCHI:DATE:TRANS:PAR:SECCHI Secchi depth (m):DATE Sample collection date (YYMMDD):TRANS Transmissivity (%) at the bottom:PAR PAR (mE/m2/s) at the bottom OCE data: 'bot':TEMP:SAL:DO:PH:DATE:FLR:DENS DENS Density (Sigma t) at the bottom: DO Dissolved oxygen conc. (mg/l) at the bottom: FLR Fluorescence at the bottom: PAR PAR (mE/m2/s) at the bottom: PH pH (units) at the bottom: SAL Salinity (ppt) at the bottom: TEMP Temperature (C) at the bottom: TRANS Transmissivity (%) at the bottom BIO data: ABUN_MSQ:::N_GRABS; A_SAMPS :#TAXA:#ORGS:BMASS; MN_BIOM :I_TAXA; NUM_SPP:INF_ABU; I_ORGS:EPI_ABU :MSINFCNT:MSEPICNT:BIOM_MSQ:HPLC:FLUOR ABUN_MSQ Abundance (#/m**2) #GRABS Number of grabs A_SAMPS Number of Grabs with Abundance Data #TAXA Mean number of taxa per grab #ORGS Mean number of organisms per grab BMASS Mean biomass (g) per grab; MN_BIOM Mean Biomass per Grab #I_TAXA Mean number of infaunal taxa per grab I_TAXA Mean number of infaunal taxa per grab; NUM_SPP Infaunal taxa (#) per sample INF_ABU Mean Abundance per Grab, All Infauna #I_ORGS Mean number of infaunal organisms per grab EPI_ABU Mean Abundance per Grab, All Epifauna MSINFCNT Mean Number:Infauna Species per Grab MSEPICNT Mean Number:Epifauna Species per Grab BIOM_MSQ Biomass (g dry wt/m**2) HPLC HPLC Method to determine chl_a (ug/g) FLUOR Fluorometric Method to determine chl_a (ug/g) Chlorophyll measures: SITE Station name,DATE Sample collection date (YYMMDD) Metadata: I_HPRIME:SPIONID :TUBIFIC :B_SAMPS :TSINFCNT:TSEPICNT:SHANNON3:SHANNON:GLEASON3:PEXP_GL3:PEXP_TUB:B_IND94B I_HPRIME Mean inf. H prime diversity per grab SPIONID Spionid Polychaetes:Mean Abun/Grab TUBIFIC Tubificid Oligochates:Mean Abun/Grab B_SAMPS Number of Grabs with Biomass Data TSINFCNT Total Number of Infauna Species TSEPICNT Total Number of Epifauna Species SHANNON3 Shannon-Wiener Index - All Taxa SHANNON Shannon-Wiener diversity index (log2) GLEASON3 Gleason's D - All Taxa PEXP_GL3 Percent Expected Gleason's D PEXP_TUB Percent Expected Tubificid Abundance B_IND94B EMAP VA Province Benthic Index Metadata: LABCODE :QACODE :YEAR :EMAPIND2 LABCODE Contract/Lab Identifier QACODE QA Qualifier Code YEAR Sampling Year EMAPIND2 EMAP benthic index 2

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

Why was the data set created?
Environmental assessment

How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    (process 1 of 2)
    Digital data were downloaded from EPA's website

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Chris Jenkins
    Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR) University of Colorado at Boulder
    1560 30th Street
    Boulder, CO 80309-0450
    USA

    (303) 492-6387 (voice)
    (303) 492-6388 (FAX)
    chris.jenkins@colorado.edu

    Data sources used in this process:

    (process 2 of 2)
    Digital data were checked, formatted to dbSEABED input format, then processed using dbSEABED software to produce a range of output formats. The processing contained quality checking that may have declined to pass faulty or suspect data to outputs.

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Chris Jenkins
    Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR) University of Colorado at Boulder
    1560 30th Street
    Boulder, CO 80309-0450
    USA

    (303) 492-6387 (voice)
    (303) 492-6388 (FAX)
    chris.jenkins@colorado.edu

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

How can someone get a copy of the data set?
Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None.
Use_Constraints:
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, US EPA, Atlantic Ecology Division
    27 Tarzwell Drive
    Narragansett, RI 02882
    USA

    401-782-3184 (voice)
    401-782-3030 (FAX)

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    U.S. EPA: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) data

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Although this data set has been used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data or related materials. Trade, firm, or product names and other references to non-USGS products and services are provided for information only and do not constitute endorsement or warranty, express or implied, by the USGS, USDOI, or U.S. Government, as to their suitability, content, usefulness, functioning, completeness, or accuracy.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

Who wrote the metadata?
Dates:
Last modified: 25-May-2005
Last Reviewed: 03-May-2005

Metadata author:
Jamey Reid
U.S. Geological Survey
IT Specialist (Data Management)
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598

(508) 548-8700 x2204 (voice)
(508) 457-2310 (FAX)
jreid@usgs.gov

Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

Metadata extensions used:

Generated by mp version 2.7.33 on Wed May 25 13:26:50 2005