Stable Isotope Data for Small Pelagic Fishes across the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf from 2013-2015

• Main Author: Suca, Justin J
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental Data Initiative 2019
• Subjects: Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/db87adc18bdb57b618ad067cc918735c; https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=knb-lter-nes.3.1

These data represent the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures of small pelagic fishes across the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf as reported by Suca, J.J., et al. (2018) Feeding dynamics of Northwest Atlantic small pelagic fishes. Progress in Oceanography, 165, 52-62, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2018.04.014. The five species of fish in this dataset represent a subset of the species collected in bottom trawls conducted by the NOAA NEFSC Ecosystems Survey Branch from Cape Hatteras to the Gulf of Maine for years 2013-2015. Sampling occurred in the Spring and Fall seasons. Sections of dorsal musculature were analyzed for carbon and nitrogen isotopes using mass spectrometry. Carbon-to-nitrogen isotopic ratios were reported along with the isotopic signatures for carbon and nitrogen respectively. Additionally, a lipid-corrected carbon signature was calculated for the fish muscle tissue. The dataset was supplemented with geospatial and temporal information from NOAA Fisheries trawl databases.