Quantitative phytoplankton profiles data collected from R/V Bellows cruise BE-1415 in the Gulf of Mexico on 2014-05-31 (NCEI Accession 0176591)

This dataset reports plankton species abundance from 5 sites off the Florida Panhandle at the head of DeSoto Canyon, Gulf of Mexico aboard the R/V Bellows cruise BE-1415 on 2014-05-31. The R/V Bellows cruise BE-1415 extended from 2014-05-29 to 2014-06-01. Quantitative phytoplankton profiles were collected at 5 sites (P1, P3, P5, P7, P9) along the Pensacola transect (Longitude -87.25 degrees N). For this, one-liter samples were collected from the surface and at different depths using Niskin bottles. Samples were filtered onto a 0.45-micrometer nitrocellulose filter and air-dried. A portion of each filter was mounted on an aluminum stub, sputter-coated, and examined with a JEOL JSM-6480 LV scanning electron microscope. Diatoms, coccolithophores, and armored dinoflagellates were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic category. The number of cells of each taxon in a field of view at a magnification of 1000x was recorded, with up to 700 fields-of-view examined, depending on the density of phytoplankton in the sample. The dataset includes the depth, the volume filtered, the number of cells of each taxon counted, and the calculated abundance of each taxon in cells per liter. Micrographs taken during the analysis are included.