Benthic lower trophic level food webs in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas – baselines and relevance of sea ice algal production, 2011-2012

• Main Author: Iken, Katrin
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Axiom Data Science 2019
• Subjects: Arctic; Chukchi Sea; Beaufort Sea; Chukchi; Climate change; ice algae; Ice Shelf; Phytoplankton; Sea ice; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24431/rw1k33e; https://search.dataone.org/#view/10.24431/rw1k33e

This project investigated climate change effects on Arctic lower trophic food webs. In this study, we determined the contribution of ice algae versus phytoplankton as carbon sources for various Arctic benthic invertebrates representing important feeding types. There are two data files associated with this project. The first data file: Arctic_Invert_FAdata.csv contains sample information of Arctic invertebrates collected in 2012 in the Chukchi Sea, Alaska for fatty acid analysis. This information includes collection location, taxonomic classification, and specimen characteristics (length and feeding type). Data were collected to identify ice algal or phytoplankton fatty acid origin of select fatty acids to be used as biomarkers of feeding on these sources in Arctic benthic invertebrates. The second data file: NPRB_BeauFish 2011_SIA_Data.csv contains data collected to identify food web structure on the Beaufort Sea Ice Shelf. The file contains sample information (location, taxonomic classification) on Arctic invertebrates collected in 2012 for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. The file also contains the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values for individual samples.