The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) contracted Barry A. Vittor and Associates, Inc. to conduct digital aerial image surveys of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in and around Mobile Bay, Alabama in 2002. Two data sets were the result: digital vector data from imagery collected during summer 2002, and GPS field points data collected between July 2002 and April 2003 to groundtruth the imagery.

This data set consists of GIS data documenting the location, species composition, and other habitat characteristics of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in coastal Alabama. This was collected as part of a remote sensing investigation of SAV distribution using summer and fall ortho imagery as base maps.

Aerial_WDL_Shorelines.zip features digitized historic shorelines for the Dauphin Island coastline from October 1940 to November 2015. This dataset contains 10 Wet Dry Line (WDL) shorelines separated into 58 shoreline segments alongshore Dauphin Island, AL. The individual sections are divided according to location along the island and shoreline type: open-ocean, back-barrier, marsh shoreline. Imagery of Dauphin Island, Alabama was acquired from several sources including the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (USDA, FSA), and the University of Alabama. These images were downloaded directly from the source's website or received as a hard copy via mail. Using ArcMap 10.3.1, the imagery was used to delineate and digitize historical shorelines at the wet-dry line along sandy beaches and the mean high water line where vegetation indicated. These shorelines were digitized for use in long-term shoreline and wetland analyses and physical change assessments. Shorelines for all 10 dates were compiled into a database for use with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS; Thieler and others, 2009) to quantify rates of shoreline change over the 1940-2015 time period. The migration of shorelines through time is presented as the linear regression rate (LRR) in the associated back-barrier and open ocean transect files, which are also included in the USGS data release (https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/data-release/provisional/ip086178/).

This projects primary goal was to provide data on occurrence and abundance of SAV resources within the fresh to saline coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico, and to relate these findings to key environmental variables. The data set provides the collected data from 2013, 2014 and 2015 on site location, discrete water quality, aquatic vegetation cover and biomass by species. The same 384 sites were collected each year, between June and September.

Digitized maps of Mobile Bay and other coastal areas of Alabama, showing habitat types and species compositions of the vegetation in three broad categories of wetland: swamps, marshes, and submersed grassbeds. All areas in the Alabama Coastal Zone of less than 10 feet elevation above sea level, up to the fork of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers, were included in the inventory. Habitat boundary delineations were based on aerial photographs from 1979 and 1980, with transects by boat or foot for field verification in 1980-1982. Dataset includes habitat type classifications based on species compositions, and identifications of dominant species at each location.

This dataset represents a compilation of vector shorelines in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Mississippi and Alabama) from 1848 to 2017. Shoreline data were obtained from multiple data sources, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR), and the Mississippi Office of Geology (MOG). All shoreline data types have uncertainty associated with delineating the shoreline location, particularly with vegetated coastlines. For this study, the "apparent shoreline" was mapped for all data sources. The "apparent shoreline" is defined as "where the actual shoreline is obscured by marsh, mangrove, cypress, or other type of marine vegetation, the outer edge of the vegetation is mapped” (Shalowitz, 1964). In the case of aerial imagery, vegetation-water boundary was digitized. Field-surveys identified the edge of the dominate vegetation or the eroding scarp line. Shorelines were obtained from the original provider, or digitized, and merged into a single file, in order to conduct shoreline change analyses. Datasets were compiled and analyzed using the R package Analyzing Moving Boundaries Using R (AMBUR) program. Rates of shoreline change can be used for evaluating living shoreline resources, decision-making for future resource planning, and restoration of both protected and open-ocean shorelines. This data release contains shorelines from 1848-2017 along with transects with rates of change joined to the data table. This metadata record should be reviewed in its entirety to ensure specific data is suitable for other studies as some shorelines were specifically digitized for use with transects in this study. Shorelines from 1942, 1975, 1986, 1992, 2004, 2006, 2014 have limited spatial resolution. All shorelines labeled GBNERR in the “Source” field of the attribute table, and 2016 and 2017 GPS shorelines from the USGS, are previously unpublished data sets.

This dataset contains hydrographic data from CTDs and thermistors on a mooring line located 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W) collected from 2020-05-29 to 2020-07-17. Thermistors sample every minute. Thermistors were at depths: ~7.3; 9.7; 11.1; 13.4; 16.1 and 18.4 m. CTDs sample at 2 minutes. CTD were at depths: ~4.6 and 19.1 m

This dataset contains hydrographic data from CTDs and thermistors on a mooring line located 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W) collected from 2020-07-17 to 2020-09-30. Thermistors sample every minute. Thermistors were at depths: ~7.2; 9.6; 11.1; 13.3; and 18.1 m. CTDs sample at 2 minutes and sensor dependent (15m/30m). CTD were at depths: ~4.7 and 19.1 m.

This dataset contains hydrographic data from CTDs and thermistors on a mooring line located 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W) collected from 2019-10-04 to 2020-02-28. Thermistors sample every minute. Thermistors were at depths: ~7.2; 9.6; 11.2; 13.3; 16.2 and 18.2m CTDs sample at 2 minutes. CTD were at depths: ~4.7; 19.2; and 20.3 m.

This dataset contains hydrographic data from CTDs and thermistors on a mooring line located 25 kilometers southwest of the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama (30.0902 N 88.2116 W) collected from 2020-09-30 to 2020-12-09. Thermistors sample every minute. Thermistors were at depths: ~7.3; 9.7; 11.1; 13.4; 16.2; and 18.1 m CTDs sample at 2 minutes and 15 minutes. CTD were at depths: ~4.1 and 19.5 m