Coastal LA

The coastal LA buoy is located in 20 m water depth on the Louisiana continental shelf.  The northern Gulf of Mexico has extensive wetlands and supports high biological diversity and biomass of fish, shellfish, and sea birds. This region is also the largest zone of oxygen-depleted (or hypoxic) coastal waters in the United States, which makes this region a unique setting to track the combined impacts of ocean acidification (OA) and hypoxia on the biological system.

Coastal LA was established in July 2017 in collaboration with Dr. Stephan Howden from the University of Southern Mississippi after being previously deployed off coastal Mississippi.  The move to the new location provides better coordination with long-term hypoxia monitoring projects and more opportunities for leveraging research on both hypoxia and OA.  The OA observations at coastal LA are supported by NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program and also leveraged by existing activities supported through the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS). 

Finalized data: available at NCEI.

Plots of surface water and atmospheric CO₂ and surface water pH (click+drag to zoom):