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USGS measurements of water quality in San Francisco Bay (CA), 2016-2021 (ver. 4.0, March 2023)

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2025

The U.S. Geological Survey maintains a program of water-quality studies in San Francisco Bay (CA) that began in 1969. This USGS Data Release archives and makes available all measurements from 2016-2021. Water-quality constituent measurements were collected aboard a research vessel. Sensor constituents include salinity, temperature, oxygen, and light attenuation coefficient. From these constituents, three parameters are derived: ratio of chlorophyll-a and pheopigments, oxygen percent saturation, and density as Sigma-t. Water sample constituents collected for later analysis include chlorophyll-a, suspended particulate matter, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, silicate and phosphate. These discrete water samples were collected at near surface (2m) by a fixed depth pump or at depth using a Niskin water sampler on a depth-marked line. The sampling was conducted monthly at 37 fixed sampling locations along a 145-km transect from lower South San Francisco Bay to the lower Sacramento River. Additional sampling cruises at a subset of stations (South and Central Bay) were conducted 0-3 times a month. All stations are listed in the station location table (SFBay_TableofStationLocations.csv) and standard stations are shown on the map (sfbaymap.jpg). A prior USGS Data Release contains the 1969-2015 data https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5841f97ee4b04fc80e518d9f. The project website contains more details about this research program and data collection https://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/access/wqdata/. The website includes a public database where data from all program years can be accessed and downloaded https://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/water-quality-database/ Please see the VersionHistory.txt for a detailed list of the updates from previous versions.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5966abe6e4b0d1f9f05cf551
Data Last Modified 2023-03-07T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id df8d4162-ebad-46d8-8ffa-e45902e4fa26
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -122.4717, 37.4717, -121.6883, 38.1517
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 545e3f9dcb272e3612256623acde21e74e8d9f498750fab3c229234990d8b6cc
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -122.4717, 37.4717, -122.4717, 38.1517, -121.6883, 38.1517, -121.6883, 37.4717, -122.4717, 37.4717}

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