Abundance of mysid shrimp and zooplankton along with environmental variables from surveys in Damariscotta River estuary, Maine from June 2023 to Feb 2024

Mysid shrimp are small crustaceans that are of particular importance in estuaries due to their role in nutrient subsidies and their importance in the diet of juvenile fishes. Despite their importance, they are typically undersampled relative to other zooplankton taxa. High abundances of Neomysis americana have been documented in the Damariscotta River estuary (DRE), Maine in late summer. While their summer abundance and small-scale diel migration behavior has been well described in the DRE, details about their basic ecology, life history, and reproduction in the DRE across seasons remains unknown. The purpose of this survey is to describe the seasonal abundance and population structure of N. americana in relation to environmental parameters and zooplankton-prey abundance. The survey was conducted every two weeks beginning in May of 2023 through October 2023 with monthly sampling being completed from November 2023 through May 2024. Mysid and zooplankton samples were collected from the dock at the Darling Marine Center. These data files include environmental measurements made with a YSI sonde. Sonde-measured parameters include temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, and turbidity. These data files also include density and biomass information for zooplankton and mysid shrimp.