This data set README_Variability in the discharge of the Mississippi River and tributaries from 1817 to 2020

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Variability in the discharge of the Mississippi River and tributaries from 1817 to 2020

2. Author Information
	A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
		Name: R. Eugene Turner
		Institution: Louisiana State University
		Address: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, 70803
		Email: euturne@lsu.edu


3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date) <suggested format YYYY-MM-DD>: 
1817 to 2020

4. Geographic location of data collection <latitude, longitude, or city/region, State, Country, as appropriate>: Mississippi River at at Clinton, IA, Herman, MO, St. Louis, MO, Louisville, KY, and Vicksburg, MS (USA)

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: NOAA Coastal Ocean Program MULTISTRESS Award No. NA16OP2670 to Louisiana State University and NSF Award Number (FAIN) 2103843: Large-scale CoPe Hub: Rising Voices, Changing Coasts: The National Indigenous and Earth Sciences Convergence Hub. 


SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: none

2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: PlosOne 'Variability in the discharge of the Mississippi River and tributaries from 1817 to 2020' in press

3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: none

4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: none

5. Was data derived from another source? YES

6. Recommended citation for this dataset: Mississippi River discharge 1817 to 2021


DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

1. File List: 

worksheet 'Readme': basic information on authors, data abstract, research address
worksheet 'units': 
worksheet 'Clinton, Iowa'
worksheet 'Herman, Missouri'
worksheet 'St. Louis, Missouri'
worksheet 'Louisville, Kentucky'
worksheet 'Vicksburg, Mississippi'

2. Relationship between files, if important: none

3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: none

4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? NO

METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 

archival records search for records of the annual average, minimum, and maximum discharges at five stations draining the Mississippi River watershed: at Clinton, IA, Herman, MO, St. Louis, MO, Louisville, KY, and Vicksburg, MS. 

2. Methods for processing the data: 
Ratios of minimum/maximum made, a spline analysis of inflection points in trends made, and regression analysis made for detection of trends

3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: 
<include full name and version of software, and any necessary packages or libraries needed to run scripts>
none

4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: 
archival records search

5. Environmental/experimental conditions: none

6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: 
comparison of two data sets (MR River Commission vs. USGS-sourced data)

7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: 
RE Turner

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [FILENAME]
separate worksheet for data labeled 'data'

1. Number of variables: 7

2. Number of cases/rows: maximum of 204 rows of data for 5 worksheets

3. Variable List: 

YEAR
Average annual discharge from Mississippi River Commmission
Average annual discharge from USGS
Std. Error of Mean for discharge from USGS
Minimum annual discharge from Mississippi River Commmission
Minimum annual discharge from USGS
Maximum annual discharge from Mississippi River Commmission
Maximum annual discharge from USGS

4. Missing data codes: 
n/a

5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: 
cubic meters per second = m3 y-1