Plankton species abundance data collected during R/V Bellows cruise BE-1205 in the DeSoto Canyon, Gulf of Mexico from 2011-10-24 to 2011-10-26 (NCEI Accession 0174626)

This dataset reports plankton species relative abundances from sites off the Florida Panhandle Bight at the head of DeSoto Canyon. Plankton samples were collected from 16 offshore shelf sites October 24 to October 26, 2011. It includes sites, date/times, length of tow, plankton samples, counts, and the percentage of total plankton represented by each group. Plankton species were categorized as Ceratium spp., Dinophysis spp., other dinoflagellates, Chaetoceros/Bacteriastrum spp., Rhizosolenia/Guinardia spp, Eucampia/Hemiaulus spp., other chain-forming diatoms, Thalassionematales spp., Nitzschioid diatoms, other diatoms, Cyanobacteria (Trichodesmium spp.), and zooplankton.