Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Values, Trophic Position, and Mercury Concentration of Invertebrates, Fishes, and Seabirds in Coastal Louisiana, 2010-05-27 to 2010-12-12

This dataset includes bulk carbon (delta-13C), nitrogen (delta-15N), total mercury (tHg) concentrations, and trophic position estimates of four species of seabird (Brown Pelican, Black Skimmer, Royal Tern, Laughing Gull), six species of fish (Gulf Menhaden, Atlantic Croaker, Pinfish, Sand Seatrout, Flathead Grey Mullet, White Mullet), and three species of invertebrates (White Shrimp, Blue Crab, and Eastern Oyster) that were collected from coastal Louisiana from May to December following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Organisms were collected as part of NOAA’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and were frozen (-80°C) until tissues could be extracted (muscle from seabirds, fish and shrimp; whole body from oysters and crabs) and prepared for isotope and mercury analyses. Trophic position was then calculated by incorporating delta-15N values into the single baseline equation from Post (2002). We used primary consumers (oysters) as the baseline with an assumed trophic position of 2, and a trophic discrimination factor of 3.4‰.本数据集涵盖2010年深水地平线漏油事件后5月至12月，从路易斯安那州沿海区域采集的样本的总碳（δ¹³C，delta-13C）、氮（δ¹⁵N，delta-15N）、总汞（tHg，total mercury）浓度数据，以及四类海鸟（褐鹈鹕、黑剪嘴鸥、皇家燕鸥、笑鸥）、六种鱼类（海湾鲱、大西洋叫姑鱼、平鳍鳉、砂海鳟、灰鲻、白鲻）和三类无脊椎动物（白虾、蓝蟹、东部牡蛎）的营养级估算值。该批生物样本作为美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA）自然资源损害评估（Natural Resource Damage Assessment, NRDA）项目的组成部分被采集，所有样本均保存于-80℃环境中，直至完成组织提取工作：海鸟、鱼类及虾类取肌肉组织，牡蛎与螃蟹取整体躯体，随后制备用于同位素与汞分析的样品。后续通过将δ¹⁵N值代入Post（2002）提出的单一基线方程，计算得到各样本的营养级。本研究以初级消费者牡蛎作为基线，假设其营养级为2，并采用3.4‰的营养分馏系数（trophic discrimination factor）。