Data Related to the Occurrence and Duration of Red Tides (Karenia brevis) on the Texas coast from 1955-09-12 to 2016-10-27

The data submitted here are the result of a data mining effort to assess trends in the occurrence and duration of red tides caused by Karenia brevis on the Texas coast. Articles from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper (1955-2016) were read for information pertaining to the presence of red tide blooms. The articles are included as PDF formatted files here. This information was summarized into a daily presence/absence spreadsheet for a total of 16 areas along the Texas Coast. The 16 areas include the major bays of Texas (9) as well as coastal zone segments (7). The coastal zone was divided into segments based on estuarine connections with the Gulf of Mexico (i.e. the coastal zone between Packery Channel and Aransas Pass constitutes one coastal zone segment). The 16 areas are: Coastal Zone from Land Cut to Mexico Border, Lower Laguna Madre Estuary, Coastal Zone from Packery Channel to Land Cut, Coastal Zone from Aransas Pass to Packery Channel, Baffin Bay Estuary, Upper Laguna Madre Estuary, Nueces Estuary, Mission-Aransas Estuary, Guadalupe Estuary, Coastal Zone from Port O'Connor to Aransas Pass, Coastal Zone from Brazosport to Port O'Connor, Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Coastal Zone from Bolivar Roads to Brazosport, Trinity-San Jacinto Estuary, Coastal Zone from Louisiana Border to Bolivar Roads. A shapefile package is included in this dataset for easy visualization of the major bays and coastal zone segments. Environmental data was received from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (1977-2016) and includes salinity and water temperature (°C). This data was used to explain variation in the presence/absence and duration of red tides in Texas coastal waters. Latitude and longitude are included where available. Empty cells represent non-existent data. Also included in this dataset is example R code used for statistical analyses performed for the study. The version of R used for this study was 3.5.2.