Barents Sea Cod Diet Data

• Main Author: Townhill, Bryony
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Institute of Marine Research 2020
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Lofoten; Norway; atlantic cod
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21335/nmdc-2139169383; http://metadata.nmdc.no/metadata-api/landingpage/788a47dd51699ba32cc65587ac9e31e2

A new dataset on the diet of Atlantic cod in the Barents Sea from the 1930s to the present day has been compiled, to produce one of the largest fish diet datasets available globally. The data, from Norway and the United Kingdom, represents quantitative stomach contents records from more than 165,000 fish. Much of the data is from joint collaborative surveys between Norway and Russia. The sampling was done throughout each year allowing for seasonal, annual and decadal comparisons to be made. Russian data cannot be released with this dataset for legal reasons but is available through joint projects with the Polar branch of VNIRO. A paper has been submitted along with this dataset: Townhill, B.L., Holt, R.E., Bogstad, B., Durant, J.M., Pinnegar, J.K., Dolgov, A.V., Yaragina, N.A., Johannesen, E., Ottersen, G. Barents Sea cod diet data from the 1930s to the present day. Earth System Science Data. In Review. Data records: Each line in the data file represents a single prey item. The first columns (1-12) describe predator information. From column 13 (Prey) onwards, prey information is described for each prey item in said predator. If multiple prey items were found in the stomach of one predator, predator information (columns 1-12) are repeated for each individual prey. If a cod stomach was empty, “Empty” is detailed in the “Prey” column, and thus only predator information is available for those entries. Data columns 4 (Ship Code), 9 (Fish_Weight_kg), 10 (Age_y), 11 (Deg_Stomach_Fullness) and 12 (Sex) only relate to Norwegian data. Columns 23 and 24 (No_of¬_Stomachs and Pooled) relate only to CEFAS (U.K) data, all other columns relate to both components (Norwegian & U.K) of the dataset. Please see supplementary material 2 associated with Townhill et al. Barents Sea cod diet data from the 1930s to the present day paper for further details). Be aware that cod stomachs sampled south of 70°N and west of 18°E (Lofoten and nearby areas), were excluded from the dataset. Prey categories were chosen subjectively according to current database requirements (Please see Supplementary material 1 associated with Townhill et al. Barents Sea cod diet data from the 1930s to the present day publication for further details); they can be changed in accordance to research objectives.