Our ability to improve society’s understanding of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, including humans, and to ensure the Gulf’s long-term environmental and public health requires access to a wide array of data. Understanding the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors on marine and coastal ecosystems and human populations calls for the ability to integrate and analyze data from diverse sources, across disciplines, and from varied spatial and temporal scales. One of the more frequent observations hindering determination of Deepwater Horizon spill ecosystem impacts revolved around the lack of baseline data from many disciplines. Data are required to make informed decisions about the management of complex systems, particularly relating to impacts, future response, mitigation, and restoration following spills and natural disasters.

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