Bay-bottom Inventory- Data, Products & Reports

 

 

The objective of the DEBI is to catalog and describe the living species in the benthic ecosystem of the tidal Delaware River and Bay. These data will be used to add biological information onto detailed maps previously created by the states of Delaware and New Jersey. Findings from the DEBI will show the extent of underwater plants, animals, and environmental conditions, including species or habitats of special concern.

This estuarine survey was initiated in July of 2008 using the research vessel Lear, which is owned and operated by the EPA's Region 3 Office. Over a two-month period, scientists sampled more than 230 locations across 91 river miles between the mouth of Delaware Bay and Philadelphia. Most locations had a soft bottom and were sampled using a device called a bottom grab. Other locations required a new approach.

 

 

IMPORTANT:

The PDE and STAC-affiliated DEBI workgroup are providing these publicly funded data for general use and interpretation by others.  PDE and our partners in the DEBI program are not responsible for any changes that are made to the dataset once it is downloaded from the PDE website, and this applies to any subsequent analyses or interpretations of data made by others.

Products of the Delaware Estuary Benthic Inventory (DEBI) should be referenced as noted in the metadata for each sepecific data set.  The DEBI effort was multidisciplinary and many federal, state and regional partners contributed with design, sampling, sample analysis and data analysis products.  The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE), a National Estuary Program, was the coordinating entity and grantee, working closely with EPA Region 3 and the EPA Atlantic Ecology Division. As reports and additional data analysis products from DEBI become available, they will be put onto this website and the PDE reports page.

 Data Type # of Samples File File Type
2009 Hard Bottom 21 Coming soon -
% Silt / Clay 253 Sediment Zipped GIS
Percent Clay Zipped GIS
Percent Sand Zipped GIS
Benthic Community 253 Biomass & Abundance Zipped GIS
Bivalve 25 Coming soon -
Dioxins/Furans 25 Coming soon -
Metals 253 All Metals Zipped GIS
Aluminum Zipped GIS
Antimony Zipped GIS
Arsenic Zipped GIS
Cadmium Zipped GIS
Chromium Zipped GIS
Copper Zipped GIS
Iron Zipped GIS
Lead Zipped GIS
Manganese Zipped GIS
Mercury Zipped GIS
Nickel Zipped GIS
Selenium Zipped GIS
Silver Zipped GIS
Tin Zipped GIS
Zinc Zipped GIS
PCB 51 Coming soon -
PCB 244 Coming soon -
Quality Assurance Project Plan - QAPP PDF
Total Organic Carbon 253 TOC Zipped GIS
YSI Data 230 Sonde Data Zipped GIS

 

     
It may not look like much, but this vial of mud and others like it will be used to map the habitats of the Delaware Estuary’s tiniest creatures, which, altogether, make up the base of the region’s food web.

 It may look like modern art, but this is one of many sponges discovered in July of 2008 by University of Delaware researchers during a DEBI survey in Delaware Bay

 

For more information on the Delaware Estuary Benthic Inventory or any data questions, please contact Angela Padeletti at (800) 445-4935, extension 103, or APadeletti@DelawareEstuary.org.