Elemental composition and organic content of the salp Soestia zonaria in the temperate Northeast Atlantic and the Southwest Pacific over the Chatham Rise

• Main Authors: Lüskow, Florian, Bahl, Alexis A, Décima, Moira, Steinberg, Deborah K, Pakhomov, Evgeny A
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2023
• Subjects: Calculated; Calculated according to Larson (1986); Calculated according to Lüskow et al. (2021); Chatham Rise; Comment; Container; mass; Cruise/expedition; Date/Time of event; DEPTH; water; DVM; Elemental analyzer (EA); Elementar; vario MICRO cube; Event label; EXPORTS_P6; Gear; Intraspecific variability; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; MIDOC; Midwater open and closing net system; Midwater trawl; MOC1; MOCNESS opening/closing plankton net 1 sqm; MWT; Net ID; North Atlantic; Number of specimens; Ocean and sea region; Pelagic tunicate; RULER; Ruler stick; Sample ID; see comment; Soestia zonaria; ash free dry mass; ash mass; carbon; per dry mass; carbon/nitrogen ratio; dry mass; nitrogen; Pacific; New Zealand; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.962753; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.962753

Although the oceanic widespread pelagic tunicate Soestia zonaria has been studied for more than a century, little ecological information exists. Soestia primarily occurs in tropical to warm-temperate regions. Soestia specimens were collected in 2008 and 2021 during two research expeditions (EXPORTS cruise to the Northeast Atlantic and TAN0806 over the Chatham Rise, New Zealand) using MOCNESS-1 net and large midwater trawl with maximum sampling depths of 1000 m. In total, 140 Soestia specimens (oral-atrial length: 7–54 mm) were analysed for biomass parameters (wet weight, dry weight, ash-free dry weight, water content, organic content) and stoichiometry (carbon and nitrogen content, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio).