From April 13 to 20, 2013, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS SPCMSC) collected push cores and vibracores on Dauphin Island, Alabama, along with push and auger cores in salt marshes at several locations in southwestern coastal Alabama. This work, a component of the SPCMSC’s Barrier Island Evolution Research (BIER) project, was conducted as part of USGS field activity number (FAN) 13BIM01. The objectives of the study were to evaluate processes affecting the development and evolution of certain back-barrier environments (marsh, flats, ponds, etc.) and to assist in developing geologic controls on barrier island breaching. In addition to the collection of sediment cores, marsh surface sediments were collected for micropaleontological analysis (included in this report). Ground penetrating radar (GPR) was collected on Dauphin Island and adjacent barrier-island environments. Elevation-corrected subsurface profile images of the processed GPR data, unprocessed digital GPR trace data, post-processed differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) data, and Geographic Information System (GIS) files are reported in Forde and others (2016, https://doi.org/10.3133/ds982). This data report is an archive of field-collected and laboratory analytical data for the sediment cores and surface sediments. Data products include: GPS-derived site locations and elevations; core logs and photographs; lithologic, radiochemical, elemental composition, stable isotopic composition, micropaleontological data; and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.