ESA Gulf Coast Data Registry System
The British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will impact the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and larger regions of Earth's ecosystem in an unprecedented way. The scientific community can contribute invaluable information regarding the conditions of affected ecosystems prior to the spill. This information will be crucial to ongoing and future damage assessment, clean up, mitigation and restoration over the coming weeks, months, years, and decades.
The Ecological Society of America has set up a data registry system www.esa.org/mdc/submit.data.php in which anyone with information about ecological or environmental conditions along the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal ecosystems (LA, TX, MS, AL and FL) and other potential sites that might be affected in the future can upload metadata and help build a database documenting ecological states and conditions before the spill.
This database will be searchable by place and time, taxa or physico-chemical variables monitored, ecosystem type, etc. Those scientists contributing their metadata and their contact information will agree to share their information with scientists and managers on the front line of assessment, mitigation, or restoration efforts.