This is the original (1992) Gulf of Mexico regional component of NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically important fishes and invertebrates in the Nation's estuaries. The distribution and relative abundance are depicted in a consistent format for 44 species of fishes and invertebrates, in 31 estuaries in coastal Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Species were selected according to a set of criteria, which consider their commercial, recreational, and ecological value. For each species, five life stages are considered - adults, juveniles, larvae, spawning, and eggs - with some exceptions based on individual species life history. Each estuary is subdivided into one to three salinity zones (Tidal Fresh, Mixing, and Seawater). Relative abundance was ranked on a five-tier scale by month for each life stage of each species, in each salinity zone of each estuary. Details of the methods for the original Gulf of Mexico ELMR component can be found in Nelson et al. (1992) and Nelson and Monaco (2000).

The northern Gulf of Mexico coast spans two major climate gradients and represents an excellent natural laboratory for developing climate-influenced ecological models. In this project, we used these zones of remarkable transition to develop macroclimate-based models for quantifying the regional responses of coastal wetland ecosystems to climate variation. In addition to providing important fish and wildlife habitat and supporting coastal food webs, these coastal wetlands provide many ecosystem goods and services including clean water, stable coastlines, food, recreational opportunities, and stored carbon. Our objective was to examine and forecast the effects of macroclimatic drivers on wetland ecosystem structure and function in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

This is the West Coast regional component of NOAA’s Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically important fishes and invertebrates in the Nation's estuaries. The distribution and relative abundance are depicted in a consistent format for 47 species of fishes and invertebrates, in 32 estuaries in coastal California, Oregon, and Washington State. Species were selected according to a set of criteria, which consider their commercial, recreational, and ecological value, as well as their utility as an indicator of environmental stress. For each species, five life stages are considered - adults, juveniles, larvae, spawning, and eggs - with some exceptions based on individual species life history. Each estuary is subdivided into one to three salinity zones (Tidal Fresh, Mixing, and Seawater). Relative abundance was ranked on a five-tier scale by month for each life stage of each species, in each salinity zone of each estuary. Details of the methods and resulting life history summaries for the West Coast ELMR component can be found in Monaco et al. (1990) and Emmett et al. (1991).