Macroinvertebrate community structure data for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sampling in the Gulf of Mexico deep-sea benthos aboard the R/V Weatherbird from 2015-08-16 to 2017-12-05

This dataset contains macroinvertebrate community structure data for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sampling in the Gulf of Mexico deep-sea benthos aboard the R/V Weatherbird from 2015-08-16 to 2017-12-05. Benthic macroinfauna invertebrate community structure samples were collected during the C-IMAGE (Center For The Integrated Modeling And Analysis Of The Gulf Ecosystem) consortium cruises to identify aftereffects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Samples collected during cruises in 2015, 2016, and 2017 aboard the R/V Weatherbird (WB): WB-1508, WB-1609, WB-1707, WB-1712. Sediment samples were collected with a MC800 multicorer, 9.5 cm inner-diameter core, to a depth of 10 cm, and preserved in formalin. Upon return to the lab, core sections were sieved over 300-μm sieves and hand sorted under a dissecting microscope. All organisms were identified to the family level when possible.