Essential element (micro-nutrient) concentrations in 78 coastal to oceanic forage species sampled in the Bay of Biscay, Northeast Atlantic, between 2002 and 2008

• Main Authors: Chouvelon, Tiphaine, Gilbert, Lola, Caurant, Florence, Méndez-Fernandez, Paula, Bustamante, Paco, Brault-Favrou, Maud, Spitz, Jérome
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2022
• Subjects: Arsenic; standard deviation; Bay_of_Biscay_2002_2008; Bay of Biscay Iberian Basin NE Atlantic; Campaign; Cephalopods; Chromium; Class; Cobalt; Copper; Crustacea; Device type; Family; Field observation; fish; forage species; Habitat; ICP-OES; Varian Vista Pro; inorganic elements; Iron; Jellyfish; Kjeldahl digestion and titration (Fischer; 1984; PhD Thesis; Oregon State Univ.); LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; macro-minerals; Manganese; Micro-nutrients; Moisture; MULT; Multiple investigations; Nickel; North East Atlantic; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.940861; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940861

The dataset contains the concentrations of 11 essential elements (micro-nutrients) analysed in whole bodies of 78 forage species sampled on the continental shelf or in the canyons of the Bay of Biscay, North-East Atlantic. The species encompass jellyfish, crustaceans, cephalopods, cartilaginous and bony fish from coastal to oceanic and deep-sea waters. The elements include two macro-minerals (nitrogen and phosphorous) and nine trace elements (arsenic, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, selenium, and zinc). Most of the specimens were collected during the annual EVHOE fishery campaigns (“Evaluation Halieutique de l'Ouest de l'Europe”; https://doi.org/10.18142/8) conducted each autumn by the “Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer” (Ifremer) on R/V Thalassa, between 2002 and 2008, by benthic trawling with marge vertical opening or by pelagic trawling. Some species were additionally sampled during the same period from opportunistic fishing boats. As far as possible, the size range of these forage species was selected to match published prey sizes for cetacean predators in the Bay of Biscay. All the material was frozen immediately after collection and kept at –20°C until being processed. In the laboratory, whole organisms were briefly thawed. To reduce inter-individual variability, few to hundreds of individuals (depending on the size of species) were grouped for each species (i.e. constitution of pools) and homogenized using a stainless-steel knife mill, carefully rinsed with ultrapure water between each sample. These pools of whole specimens (corresponding to analytical samples) were frozen again –20°C, freeze-dried and reduced into fine powder until further analyses. A total of 115 samples was finally analysed. The process of organisms and samples (brief thawing, homogenization, freeze-dried and reduction into powder) was done within a maximum of two years after at-sea collection, and the samples (powders) were stored in a clean and dry place until analyses. Total element ...