Fish eggs and larvae assemblages collected before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, near Dauphin Island, Alabama, June-July 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

The goal of this project was to compare fish egg and larvae assemblages before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to quantify potential impacts of the oil spill on these highly vulnerable early life stages. Depth-discrete and surface ichthyoplankton samples collected off coastal Alabama(20m depth) were available from a monitoring program that began in 2004 and continued through 2010. In this study, only samples collected during one month (June or July) coincident with the occurrence of oil at the study location were processed for egg and larvae identification and enumeration. Fish eggs and challenging larvae were identified to species level using DNA barcoding techniques (DNA sequencing of partial cytochrome c oxidase I [COI]). Remaining larvae were identified using described morphometric characters. Species abundances, vertical distributions, and assemblage metrics (e.g., richness, diversity) were compared before and after the oil spill to assess potential impacts of the oil spill on these early life stages of fishes. Ichthyoplankton data are from June and July sampling events in 2007, 2009 and 2010. Fish egg data are from 2007, 2008 and 2010..