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1. Diet composition for small pelagic fishes across the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf for NES-LTER, ongoing since 2013

   https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/E48FEF01A8BB7AE3C443D57DE83BED2E  

   Glancy, Sarah G; Suca, Justin J; Llopiz, Joel K (January 2022, Environmental Data Initiative)

   These data represent the diet composition of small pelagic fishes assessed by the Northeast U.S. Shelf Long-Term Ecological Research (NES-LTER) project. The six species of fish in this dataset represent a subset of the species collected in bottom trawls conducted by the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Ecosystems Surveys from Cape Hatteras to the Gulf of Maine. Sampling occurred in the Spring and Fall seasons. Fish were frozen and stomach content analyses were conducted by the Fisheries Oceanography and Larval Fish Ecology Lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Data are counts and length measurements for prey items examined under a dissecting microscope. Prey species were matched to the lowest taxonomic level in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) for scientific name and taxonomic serial number. The dataset was supplemented with geospatial and temporal information from NOAA Fisheries trawl databases. 

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2. North Temperate Lakes LTER: Pelagic Prey - Sonar Data 2001 - current

   https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/5eacf039425717bc9bc766962489e184  

   Magnuson, John; Carpenter, Stephen; Stanley, Emily (January 2022, Environmental Data Initiative)

   Total pelagic fish abundance data were collected annually in mid-summer using sonar along a set of transects in each of eight lakes (Allequash, Big Muskellunge, Crystal, Sparkling, Trout, Mendota, Monona, and Fish), from 1981-1999, and in Lakes Monona and Fish from 1995-1999. This data is not available online (contact gahler@wisc.edu). No data was collected in 2000. In 2001, collection resumed on Crystal, Sparkling, and Trout. In 2005, collection resumed on Lake Mendota. This data is included in this dataset as CSV files. The data represent lake-wide density estimates for abundant pelagic prey species in each lake. The sampling on each lake was conducted in depths greater than 5 meters to avoid hazards to equipment. In addition, because of the near field acoustic effects, the upper 2 meters of the water column is not represented in the data. Although they were rare, large targets representing predatory species were excluded from the density estimation for pelagic prey species using the proportion of large targets identified during single target analysis on each lake. Densities for Sparkling, Crystal and Mendota are for the entire basin of each lake. The data shown for Trout Lake represent densities in only the south basin. Number of sites: 4 

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3. Host biology, ecology and the environment influence microbial biomass and diversity in 101 marine fish species

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34557-2  

   Minich, Jeremiah J.; Härer, Andreas; Vechinski, Joseph; Frable, Benjamin W.; Skelton, Zachary R.; Kunselman, Emily; Shane, Michael A.; Perry, Daniela S.; Gonzalez, Antonio; McDonald, Daniel; et al (December 2022, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Fish are the most diverse and widely distributed vertebrates, yet little is known about the microbial ecology of fishes nor the biological and environmental factors that influence fish microbiota. To identify factors that explain microbial diversity patterns in a geographical subset of marine fish, we analyzed the microbiota (gill tissue, skin mucus, midgut digesta and hindgut digesta) from 101 species of Southern California marine fishes, spanning 22 orders, 55 families and 83 genera, representing ~25% of local marine fish diversity. We compare alpha, beta and gamma diversity while establishing a method to estimate microbial biomass associated with these host surfaces. We show that body site is the strongest driver of microbial diversity while microbial biomass and diversity is lowest in the gill of larger, pelagic fishes. Patterns of phylosymbiosis are observed across the gill, skin and hindgut. In a quantitative synthesis of vertebrate hindguts (569 species), we also show that mammals have the highest gamma diversity when controlling for host species number while fishes have the highest percent of unique microbial taxa. The composite dataset will be useful to vertebrate microbiota researchers and fish biologists interested in microbial ecology, with applications in aquaculture and fisheries management. 

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4. Year-round utilization of sea ice-associated carbon in Arctic ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37612-8  

   Koch, Chelsea W.; Brown, Thomas A.; Amiraux, Rémi; Ruiz-Gonzalez, Carla; MacCorquodale, Maryam; Yunda-Guarin, Gustavo A.; Kohlbach, Doreen; Loseto, Lisa L.; Rosenberg, Bruno; Hussey, Nigel E.; et al (December 2023, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Sea ice primary production is considered a valuable energy source for Arctic marine food webs, yet the extent remains unclear through existing methods. Here we quantify ice algal carbon signatures using unique lipid biomarkers in over 2300 samples from 155 species including invertebrates, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals collected across the Arctic shelves. Ice algal carbon signatures were present within 96% of the organisms investigated, collected year-round from January to December, suggesting continuous utilization of this resource despite its lower proportion to pelagic production. These results emphasize the importance of benthic retention of ice algal carbon that is available to consumers year-round. Finally, we suggest that shifts in the phenology, distribution and biomass of sea ice primary production anticipated with declining seasonal sea ice will disrupt sympagic-pelagic-benthic coupling and consequently the structure and the functioning of the food web which is critical for Indigenous Peoples, commercial fisheries, and global biodiversity. 

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5. Intraspecific variation and energy channel coupling within a Chilean kelp forest

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3198  

   Elliott Smith, E; Harrod, C; Docmac, F; Newsome, S. (October 2020, Ecology)

   Winemiller, KO. (Ed.)

   The widespread importance of variable types of primary production, or energy channels, to consumer communities has become increasingly apparent. However, the mechanisms underlying this “multichannel” feeding remain poorly understood, especially for aquatic ecosystems that pose unique logistical constraints given the diversity of potential energy channels. Here, we use bulk tissue isotopic analysis along with carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis of individual amino acids to characterize the relative contribution of pelagic and benthic energy sources to a kelp forest consumer community in northern Chile. We measured bulk tissue δ13C and δ15N for >120 samples; of these we analyzed δ13C values of six essential amino acids (EAA) from nine primary producer groups (n = 41) and 11 representative nearshore consumer taxa (n = 56). Using EAA δ13C data, we employed linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to assess how distinct EAA δ13C values were between local pelagic (phytoplankton/particulate organic matter), and benthic (kelps, red algae, and green algae) endmembers. With this model, we were able to correctly classify nearly 90% of producer samples to their original groupings, a significant improvement on traditional bulk isotopic analysis. With this EAA isotopic library, we then generated probability distributions for the most important sources of production for each individual consumer and species using a bootstrap‐resampling LDA approach. We found evidence for multichannel feeding within the community at the species level. Invertebrates tended to focus on either pelagic or benthic energy, deriving 13–67% of their EAA from pelagic sources. In contrast, mobile (fish) taxa at higher trophic levels used more equal proportions of each channel, ranging from 19% to 47% pelagically derived energy. Within a taxon, multichannel feeding was a result of specialization among individuals in energy channel usage, with 37 of 56 individual consumers estimated to derive >80% of their EAA from a single channel. Our study reveals how a cutting‐edge isotopic technique can characterize the dynamics of energy flow in coastal food webs, a topic that has historically been difficult to address. More broadly, our work provides a mechanism as to how multichannel feeding may occur in nearshore communities, and we suggest this pattern be investigated in additional ecosystems. 

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