Zooplankton compositional (Carbon, Nitrogen) and morphological parameters for key species and taxa collected during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, 2019-2020

The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition was conducted from October 2019-September 2020. During this ~1 year period, the Research Vessel (R/V) Polarstern was frozen into the ice in the Central Arctic Ocean north of Norway and drifted with the prevailing currents from north to south, traversing multiple Arctic basins and regimes, and was re-located in late July to near the North Pole after drifting through Fram Strait. The ship served as a floating laboratory for an international, multidisciplinary program focusing on multiple facets of ice, ocean, atmosphere, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem responses to ongoing changing environmental conditions. Zooplankton ecology was investigated as part of the ecosystem team program. Here we present data on key zooplankton morphological and compositional parameters collected over the period of the drift. This data set contains the carbon and nitrogen content (micrograms [µg]) and lengths for individuals or groups of calanoid copepods and other taxa (e.g., amphipods, chaetognaths), width (micrometers [µm]) for copepods, and body area (micrometers squared [µm2]) and lipid sac area (µm2) for Calanus spp. copepods collected in different water depth intervals at approximately weekly intervals during the period of the drift.