C-IMAGE data

The Center for the Integrated Modeling and Analysis of the Gulf Ecosystem (C-IMAGE)

The Center for Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems (C-IMAGE) was a research consortium of 19 U.S. and international partners focused on effects of oil spills on marine environments. The C-IMAGE consortium completed an unprecedented study of the Deepwater Horizon blowout of 2010 through funding from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). The overarching objective of C-IMAGE was to advance understanding of marine blowouts as response agencies and production companies were underprepared to deal with the unique challenges of Deepwater Horizon. Data is made freely available to ensure society is better prepared to mitigate any future occurrences.

Projects from C-IMAGE I included ecosystem modeling based on biological, chemical, and physical data sets, marine resource assessments of ichthyoplankton, fish, and marine mammals, oil and dispersant toxicology, simulating high-pressure environments and their effects on fluids, and sediment analysis of oil-affected areas of the sea floor.

C-IMAGE II focused on Six Tasks covering a range of research areas including deep-ocean environments, sediment deposition, and plankton and fish species toxicity.

C-IMAGE III focused on GoMRI Research Themes 2 and 3: chemical evolution and biological degradation of the petroleum/dispersant systems and subsequent interaction with coastal, open-ocean, and deep-water ecosystems (Theme 2); and environmental effects of the petroleum/dispersant system on the sea floor, water column, coastal waters, beach sediments, wetlands, marshes, and organisms; and the science of ecosystem recovery (Theme 3).

The University of South Florida served as the host institution for C-IMAGE under the direction of Principle Investigator Dr. Steven Murawski, Assistant Director Sherryl Gilbert and Chief Science Officer Dr. David Hollander. The data in this repository contains the work of USF researchers. To view data from across GRIIDC’s research groups, please visit GRIIDC’s dataset monitoring webpage.