ARISE project - Work package 3: Stable nitrogen isotopes of bulk tissue and amino-acids of ringed seals muscle and teeth's growth layer groups of harp seals from the Arctic and sub-Arctic

This dataset includes stable nitrogen isotopes of bulk tissue (δ15Nbulk) and compound specific stable nitrogen isotopes on amino acids (δ15NAA) measured in harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) teeth from Southern Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, Northwest Atlantic, and ringed seal (Pusa hispida) muscles from Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Island, in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Teeth of harp seals from the Northwest Atlantic (n=48) were taken from archives in Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) St John's, Canada from 1979 to 2016. Teeth of harp seals from the Barents Sea (n=72) and Greenland Sea (n=55) were taken from archives of the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway, from 1963 to 2018 and 1953 to 2014, respectively. Muscle tissue from ringed seals were opportunistically sampled as part of Inuit subsistence harvests. Samples from the CAA were collected in Resolute from 1992 to 2016 (n=66). Muscle samples from the Baffin Bay were collected in Pangirtung from 1990 to 2016 (n=39). The seal samples were collected as part of Norwegian commercial sealing and student field courses from the University of Tromso in Norway (Barents Sea and Greenland Sea) and the Inuit subsistence and commercial harvests in Canada (Northwest Atlantic, Baffin Island, Canadian Archipelago). Analyses of δ15Nbulk and δ15NAA of seal tissue were carried out at the Liverpool Isotopes for Environmental Research laboratory, University of Liverpool. Results are reported here in standard δnotation (per mille) relative to atmospheric N2. This work resulted from the ARISE project (NE/P006035/1 and NE/P006310/1), as part of the Changing Arctic Ocean programme, funded by the UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).