Comprehensive inventory of seafloor mapping, ground-truthing, and predictive habitat modeling datasets to support Deepwater Horizon mesophotic and deep benthic community restoration

This dataset is a collection and inventory of existing seafloor mapping, ground-truthing, and predictive habitat modeling data within the Gulf of Mexico. The inventory was compiled by the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC): Mapping Ground-truthing, and Predictive Habitat Modeling Project. This project is one of many selected by the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group to restore natural resources injured by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Data collected from 1980 to 2021 were sourced from federal and state agencies, as well as from academia and industry. Each dataset is represented in the inventory as a spatial footprint with corresponding quantitative and qualitative attributes. The seafloor mapping data are primarily remote sensing observations used to survey and derive depth, shape, and texture of the seafloor and characterize the geomorphological forms, substrates, and biota used to define MDBC habitats. Ground-truthing data are in-situ observations that provide visual and analytical characterization of information documenting the abundance and distribution of MDBC, substrate, and geomorphology. Predictive habitat models analyze habitat-environment or species-environment relationships from seafloor mapping data, in situ observations, and environmental data to predict MDBC habitat. The spatial extent of the dataset is as follows, except for predictive habitat models which have a more global extent.