Texas and Florida Red Drum Egg Boon Data 2009-2023

Availability of essential fatty acids (EFAs) in marine ecosystems can have important consequences for organisms, populations, and communities. EFAs are highly concentrated in eggs of marine animals, and coordinated spawning creates superabundances of these nutritional resources in spatially and temporally discrete patches, known as egg boons. The objective of this study was to document the magnitude of temporal and geographic variability in the three dominant EFAs in egg boons (docosahexaenoic acid, DHA; eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA; and arachidonic acid, ARA) and to assess the changes in trophic linkages that are responsible for that variability using 14 diet-related fatty acids and 5 trophic biomarkers in egg boons of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus). Egg boons were sampled from sites in the eastern and western Gulf of Mexico (Florida and Texas).