Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Values, Trophic Position, and Mercury Concentration of Invertebrates, Fishes, and Seabirds in Coastal Louisiana, 2010-05-27 to 2010-12-12

This dataset includes bulk carbon (delta-13C), nitrogen (delta-15N), total mercury (tHg) concentrations, and trophic position estimates of four species of seabird (Brown Pelican, Black Skimmer, Royal Tern, Laughing Gull), six species of fish (Gulf Menhaden, Atlantic Croaker, Pinfish, Sand Seatrout, Flathead Grey Mullet, White Mullet), and three species of invertebrates (White Shrimp, Blue Crab, and Eastern Oyster) that were collected from coastal Louisiana from May to December following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Organisms were collected as part of NOAA’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and were frozen (-80°C) until tissues could be extracted (muscle from seabirds, fish and shrimp; whole body from oysters and crabs) and prepared for isotope and mercury analyses. Trophic position was then calculated by incorporating delta-15N values into the single baseline equation from Post (2002). We used primary consumers (oysters) as the baseline with an assumed trophic position of 2, and a trophic discrimination factor of 3.4‰.