Alexandrium catenella planktonic cell abundance and toxicity from the Norseman II (NRS2022_01S and NRS2022_02S), as part of the 2022 Origin and Fate of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Warming Chukchi Sea cruise

Climate change is expanding the spatial and temporal niche for harmful algal bloom (HAB) organisms to establish in Arctic waters, with the potential to impact human and ecosystem health. An emerging species of concern is Alexandrium catenella (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:231873), a dinoflagellate which produces paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) that can be transferred through the food web. A research cruise aboard the R/V Norseman II in summer 2022 was focused on characterizing HAB dynamics in the northern Bering Sea, Chukchi Shelf, and Western Beaufort Sea. During this cruise, an extensive bloom of A. catenella was detected as it was advected northward through the study region. This dataset presents the biological data collected in association with this bloom event. These include: A. catenella surface underway cell concentrations measured by a shipboard Imaging FlowCytobot (NRS2022_IFCBbinlist_ACat_TSG.csv), water column distributions of A. catenella cell concentrations at sampling stations (NRS2022_wholecell_ACat.csv), and paralytic shellfish toxins associated with the bloom (NRS2022_PSTs.csv).