This project explores how oyster, blue crab, and spotted seatrout populations respond to human and environmental changes with the goal of improving the management of these economically and culturally important species.

This project will integrate information on ecosystem stressors and predator-prey interactions into the fisheries assessment and management process in the Gulf of Mexico.

This project compiled and evaluated existing information on fish spawning aggregations in the Gulf of Mexico as the basis to design a cooperative, Gulf-wide conservation and monitoring program focused on fish spawning aggregations. The investigators compiled existing biological and fisheries information for Gulf of Mexico species known or likely to form spawning aggregations and identified existing datasets and monitoring programs in the Gulf of Mexico that could inform regional monitoring of spawning aggregations.

This project will investigate the link between nutrients, food availability, and the survival of Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae which can be used to improve stock assessments for this commercially and recreationally important species.

This USGS Data Release represents geospatial and tabular data for the Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment Project. The data release was produced in compliance with the new 'open data' requirements as way to make the scientific products associated with USGS research efforts and publications available to the public. The dataset consists of 2 separate items: 1. Vulnerability assessment data for habitat and species based on expert opinion (Tabular datasets) 2. Vulnerability assessment values for species across subregions in study area (Vector GIS dataset)

This USGS Data Release represents geospatial and tabular data for the Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment Project. The data release was produced in compliance with the new 'open data' requirements as way to make the scientific products associated with USGS research efforts and publications available to the public. The dataset consists of 2 separate items: 1. Vulnerability assessment data for habitat and species based on expert opinion (Tabular datasets) 2. Vulnerability assessment values for species across subregions in study area (Vector GIS dataset)

The Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) used an expert opinion approach to qualitatively assess the vulnerability of four ecosystems: mangrove, oyster reef, tidal emergent marsh, and barrier islands, and a suite of wildlife species that depend on them. More than 50 individuals participated in the completion of the GCVA, facilitated via Ecosystem and Species Expert Teams. The GCVA made use of the Standardized Index of Vulnerability and Value Assessment (SIVVA) (Reece and Noss 2014) to provide an objective framework for evaluating vulnerability by guiding assessors through a series of questions related to the changes an ecosystem or species might experience due to climate change and other threats. Assessors used their best professional judgment, available empirical data, and numerical model outputs to complete the assessments for certain species and ecosystems. The SIVVA tool enabled the Assessment Team to then assess both the relative vulnerability of those ecosystems and species and identify the factors that most influence their vulnerability. This dataset shows the vulnerability scores of each GCVA subregion for each habitat and their associated species as well as the average vulnerability across each habitat and their associated species.

The Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) used an expert opinion approach to qualitatively assess the vulnerability of four ecosystems: mangrove, oyster reef, tidal emergent marsh, and barrier islands, and a suite of wildlife species that depend on them. More than 50 individuals participated in the completion of the GCVA, facilitated via Ecosystem and Species Expert Teams. The GCVA made use of the Standardized Index of Vulnerability and Value Assessment (SIVVA) (Reece and Noss 2014) to provide an objective framework for evaluating vulnerability by guiding assessors through a series of questions related to the changes an ecosystem or species might experience due to climate change and other threats. Assessors used their best professional judgment, available empirical data, and numerical model outputs to complete the assessments for certain species and ecosystems. The SIVVA tool enabled the Assessment Team to then assess both the relative vulnerability of those ecosystems and species and identify the factors that most influence their vulnerability. This dataset shows the vulnerability scores of each GCVA subregion for each habitat and their associated species as well as the average vulnerability across each habitat and their associated species.

This dataset is a collection of files containing the necessary inputs to, and relevant outputs from, the U.S. Gulf-wide ecosystem model, developed using the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling software package. The spatial extent of the model is 25°-30.5° N and -81° to -97.3° W and hindcast simulations were run in Ecosim from 1980 (the Ecopath snapshot year) to 2016 at a monthly timestep. Input parameters for Ecopath include biomass, consumption, mortality, diet, landings, and discards for 78 functional groups included in the model. Each input or output parameter type is included as its own csv file with informative names.