Analytical measurements: Estimated Oil Equivalents (EOE) for MICROX, a mesocosm study to quantify microbial oxidation and degradation of oil

The dataset contains estimation oil equivalence (EOE) concentration in the mesocosms made by fluorescence analyses that allowed to estimate changes in the oil concentration with time. The estimated EOE was determined by fluorescence (Wade et al. 2011) using Macondo surrogate oil as a standard to produce calibration curves at 5 to 7 concentrations. Water samples (5 to 20 ml) were extracted with 5 ml of dichloromethane. An aliquot of the extract was placed in a cuvette for fluorescence analyses (Horiba Scientific Aqualog Fluorometer). The EOE was determined from the calibration curve (Wade et al. 2011). Samples with fluorescence responses that exceeded the calibration curve were diluted so that their fluorescence was within the calibration range. Samples were taken at the beginning and end of the experiment and at intervals in between and at the same time point as measurements of other parameters during the experiment.