Total organic matter, benthic foraminifera and grain-size of sediment cores collected aboard multiple research cruises in the Gulf of Mexico from 2015-08-01 to 2018-05-22

This dataset contains Total organic matter, benthic foraminifera and grain-size of sediment cores obtained aboard several research vessels (R/V Weatherbird II-WB0815, WB1731, WB1736, WB1701; R/V Point Sur-PS1825; R/V Justo Sierra-JS0815) in the Gulf of Mexico from 2015-08-01 to 2018-05-22. This data was used in the development of a benthic foraminifera based Marine Biotic Index (Foram-AMBI) for the Gulf of Mexico: a decision support tool. 59 Sediment multi cores were collected, extruded at 2mm intervals, stained with rose bengal, and washed through a 63um sieve. 100-300 stained foraminifera were identified from each site. Total organic matter was measured using loss on ignition. Sediment grain-size was measured by sieving and settling tube techniques. Ecological group assignments (I-V) were then assigned to foraminifera species based on their correlation to organic matter. Calibration: The foram-AMBI equation was populated and calculated for each site. These values were tested on 7 sites not included in the calibration for Validation. No more than 20% of species can remain unassigned at the validation sites. The dataset also contains the location (longitude and latitude) and dates of sample collection. Cruise documentation was provided for the R/V Weatherbird II (WB0815, WB1731, WB1736, WB1701), R/V Point Sur (PS1825) and the R/V Justo Sierra (JS0815). The cruises were led by chief scientists- Dr David Hollander, Dr Patrick Schwing and Dr Steven Murawski.