Data from: Spatio-temporal models reveal subtle changes to demersal communities following the Exxon Valdez oil spill ...

• Main Authors: Shelton, Andrew O., Hunsicker, Mary E., Ward, Eric J., Feist, Blake E., Blake, Rachael, Ward, Colette L., Williams, Benjamin C., Duffy-Anderson, Janet T., Hollowed, Anne B., Haynie, Alan C.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2018
• Subjects: Lepidopsetta polyxystra/bilineata; Albatrossia pectoralis; Clupea pallasi; Theragra chalcogramma; Sebastes babcocki; Hippoglossoides elassodon; 1984-2015; Pleuronectes quadrituberculatus; Malacocottus zonurus; Myctophidae; groundfish; Sebastes variegatus; Oncorhynchus tshawytscha; spatio-temporal models; Sebastes zacentrus; Microstomus pacificus; Squalus acanthias; Sebastes brevispinis; Hippoglossus stenolepis; Myoxocephalus polyacanthocephalus; Sebastes polyspinis; Bathyraja interrupta; Zaprora silenus; Lycodes brevipes; Raja binoculata; Dasycottus setiger; Ophiodon elongatus; community analysis; Podothecus accipenserinus; Merluccius productus; Limanda aspera; Sebastolobus alascanus; Platichthys stellatus; Glyptocephalus zachirus; Bathyraja aleutica; Anoplopoma fimbria; Sebastes borealis; Hexagrammos decagrammus; Sebastes aleutianus/melanostictus; Sebastes proriger; Gadus macrocephalus; Lycodes palearis; Oncorhynchus keta; Hemilepidotus jordani; Hemitripterus bolini; Lyopsetta exilis; Hydrolagus colliei; Sebastes variabilis/ciliatus; Raja rhina; Sebastes alutus; Gulf of Alaska; Keta; Shelton; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j3t86; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.j3t86

Toxic pollutants such as crude oil have direct negative effects for a wide array of marine life. While mortality from acute exposure to oil is obvious, sub-lethal consequences of exposure to petroleum derivatives for growth and reproduction are less evident and sub-lethal effects in fish populations are obscured by natural environmental variation, fishing, and measurement error. We use fisheries independent surveys in the Gulf of Alaska to examine the consequences of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) for demersal fish. We delineate areas across a range of exposure to EVOS and use spatio-temporal models to quantify the abundance of 53 species-groups over 31 years. We compare multiple community metrics for demersal fish in EVOS and Control areas. We find that areas more exposed to EVOS have more negative trends in total groundfish biomass than non-EVOS areas, and that this change is driven primarily by reductions in the abundance of the apex predator guild. We show no signature of increased variability or ... : Datafiles and scripts for Shelton et al. 2017This file is composed of four sub-files. The "READ ME.zip" contains two word files that describe how the data files and R scripts interact to provide. "Csv data files.zip" contains four csv files including raw data used in the analysis, a spatial projection data file required to generate predictions used in the analysis, a file detailing the spatial locations used in the analysis, and the final output from the statistical model used to create figures. "Gulf of Alaska shapefile.zip" contains the files needed to open and manipulate the spatial data layers for the Gulf of Alaska. "R scripts.zip" contains seven R scripts that interact to produce the analysis and plot in the manuscript (see ReadMe for more details).Data_Scripts_and_Shapefiles.zip ...