{
    "identifier": "gov.noaa.ncei:Gulf_Salinity_5_Season",
    "accessLevel": "public",
    "contactPoint": {
        "@type": "vcard:Contact",
        "fn": "Your contact point",
        "hasEmail": "mailto:[email protected]"
    },
    "programCode": [
        "010:000"
    ],
    "landingPage": "",
    "title": "Gulf of Mexico 5-Zone Seasonal Dynamic Salinity Digital Geography",
    "description": "This is an ArcGIS shapefile which depicts the seasonal salinity dynamics of 32 Gulf of Mexico estuaries. To characterize the dynamic nature of estuarine salinity gradients, a multivariate methodology (Bulger et al. 1993) was applied to derive five bio-salinity zones in four salinity seasons for 32 Gulf of Mexico estuaries (Christensen et al. 1997). This seasonal salinity zone spatial framework built upon and refined earlier studies which characterized salinity on an annual-averaged basis (NOAA 1985, Orlando et al. 1993, NOAA 2007). Precipitation, flow gage data, and monthly salinity averages were evaluated to determine which months would be used to represent the high, low, and transitional (increasing and decreasing) salinity periods. A contour modeling procedure was applied to the data to develop seasonal salinity zones for each estuary. The salinities used to define the five seasonal zones were: 1) Salinity Zone I: 0 - 0.5 ppt; 2) Salinity Zone II: 0.5 - 5 ppt; 3) Salinity Zone III: 5-15 ppt; 4) Salinity Zone IV: 15-25ppt; and 5) Salinity Zone IV: >25ppt. These salinity zones are two-dimensional and depth-averaged, and vertical stratification is not explicitly characterized. Therefore, they can be readily represented geographically as two-dimensional areas, which shift seasonally. The monthly periods of high, low, increasing and decreasing salinity seasons vary greatly among estuaries, primarily because of different typical periods of high and low freshwater inflow. For example, the low salinity season in Galveston Bay, Texas occurs in April - June, while in Mobile Bay, Alabama, the low salinity season occurs in February - April.",
    "language": "",
    "distribution": [
        {
            "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
            "mediaType": "application\/json",
            "accessURL": "https:\/\/www.ncei.noaa.gov\/metadata\/geoportal\/\/rest\/metadata\/item\/gov.noaa.ncei%3AGulf_Salinity_5_Season"
        },
        {
            "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
            "mediaType": "text\/html",
            "accessURL": "https:\/\/www.ncei.noaa.gov\/metadata\/geoportal\/\/rest\/metadata\/item\/gov.noaa.ncei%3AGulf_Salinity_5_Season\/html"
        },
        {
            "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
            "mediaType": "application\/xml",
            "accessURL": "https:\/\/www.ncei.noaa.gov\/metadata\/geoportal\/\/rest\/metadata\/item\/gov.noaa.ncei%3AGulf_Salinity_5_Season\/xml"
        }
    ],
    "bureauCode": [
        "010:04"
    ],
    "modified": "2025-04-04T12:25:35.880Z",
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "org:Organization",
        "name": "Your Publisher"
    },
    "theme": "",
    "keyword": [
        "estuary",
        "salinity",
        "zones",
        "Apalachee Bay",
        "Apalachicola Bay",
        "Aransas Bay",
        "Atchafalaya Bay",
        "Baffin Bay",
        "Barataria Bay",
        "Biscayne Bay",
        "Brazos River",
        "Breton Sound",
        "Calcasieu Lake",
        "Caloosahatchee River",
        "Chandeleur Sound",
        "Charlotte Harbor",
        "Choctawhatchee Bay",
        "Corpus Christi Bay",
        "Florida Bay",
        "Galveston Bay",
        "Laguna Madre",
        "Lake Pontchartrain",
        "Matagorda Bay",
        "Mermentau River",
        "Mississippi River",
        "Mississippi Sound",
        "Mobile Bay",
        "North Ten Thousand Islands",
        "Pensacola Bay",
        "Perdido Bay",
        "Sabine Lake",
        "San Antonio Bay",
        "South Ten Thousand Islands",
        "St. Andrew Bay",
        "Suwannee River",
        "Tampa Bay",
        "Terrebonne Bay",
        "Timbalier Bay",
        "Vermillion Bay",
        "Spring",
        "Summer",
        "Fall",
        "Winter",
        "High salinity season",
        "Low salinity season",
        "Decreasing salinity season",
        "Increasing salinity season",
        "biota",
        "environment",
        "oceans"
    ]
}