Sediment and biogeochemical dataset along a distance gradient from marine shrimp farm cages in Toahotu Lagoon (Tahiti, French Polynesia)

Introduction
Marine aquaculture provides food sources globally but also contributes to localised pollution. To promote sustainable farming practices that minimise environmental impacts, monitoring coastal ecosystems using appropriate indicators is essential. However, small-scale aquaculture farms on isolated tropical island lagoons, which are vital for sustaining local communities, have rarely been studied, leaving a knowledge gap regarding the extent of these impacts. 
The article associated with this dataset provides a comprehensive analysis of the interactions between a shrimp farm and its surrounding environment by using a combination of indicators to quantify farm outputs and their effects on microorganisms and benthic fauna. Traditional (this dataset) and novel metabarcoding-based indicators (associated dataset) were compared to identify the most effective indicators for routinely monitoring aquaculture operation impacts in isolated tropical islands.
Dataset
This dataset includes the physical and biogeochemical data associated with the scientific article:
- water column particle weight and organic matter content (collected using particle traps).
- bottom sediment grain size and organic matter content (collected with a Van Veen grab).
- benthic macrofauna (sorted and identified to the lowest taxonomic rank at the laboratory) with density and biomass per meter square calculated from the number of individuals and their weight, accounting for the volume of each grab content per sample.
- M-AMBI index calculated from the macrofauna data at each station, using the AMBI interface v6.0 (Borja A, Mader J, Muxika I, 2012. Instructions for the use of the AMBI index software (Version 5.0). Revista de Investigación Marina, AZTI-Tecnalia. 19, 71-82).
- Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope deltas from water column particle organic matter, bottom sediment organic matter, and industrial feed. 
Associated data
eDNA data associated with this study are available at DOI […]
Scientific article
Moritz et al. in prep. […]