Quantitative phytoplankton profiles data for Pensacola Transect Station P7 collected during R/V Bellows cruise BE-1212 in the Gulf of Mexico on 2012-05-05

This dataset reports phytoplankton species abundance data for samples collected on 2012-05-05 onboard the R/V Bellows cruise BE-1212 in the Gulf of Mexico. Samples were taken at Pensacola Transect Station P7 (29.75 degrees N, 87.25 degrees W) in the Florida Panhandle Bight at the head of DeSoto Canyon. One-liter samples were collected from the surface and at depths of 25m, 50m, 75m, 100m, 125m and 150m using Niskin bottles. Samples were filtered onto a 0.45 micrometer nitrocellulose filter and air-dried. A portion of each filter was mounted on an aluminum stub, sputter-coated, and examined with a JEOL JSM-6480 LV scanning electron microscope. Diatoms, coccolithophores, and armored dinoflagellates were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic category. The number of cells of each taxon in a field of view at a magnification of 1000x was recorded, with up to 700 fields-of-view examined, depending on the density of phytoplankton in the sample. The dataset includes the depth, the volume filtered, the number of cells of each taxon counted, and the calculated abundance of each taxon in cells per liter. Micrographs taken during the analysis are included.