Abundance and biomass of Calanus spp. and near surface and bottom temperature and salinity on western North Atlantic Shelves

We present station-specific depth integrated abundance and biomass of Calanus spp. (stage-specific abundance, CI-CVI, of C. finmarchicus, C. glacialis, C. hyperboreus and combined biomass of late stages, CIV-CVI, of Calanus spp.) collected from zooplankton monitoring programs from 19 subregions spanning the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves, Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL), Scotian Shelf, and Gulf of Maine (GoM). These data span years 1999-2016, except the southwest GSL subregion (1982-2016) and GoM (1977-2016). We also present data on near surface and bottom temperature and salinity from subregions in Canadian waters. We then present derived annual anomalies of abundance of the three species of Calanus, their combined biomass, and near surface and bottom temperature and salinity from all subregions. This is a contribution by Canadian and USA scientists and their institutions. Sampling and data processing methods are provided in detail in Sorochan et al. (2019), and zooplankton sampling methods are summarized here. Zooplankton samples from the southwest GSL subregion were collected from the DFO mackerel egg production survey (Mackerel Survey) using a 0.61-m diameter bongo frame (0.333-µm mesh) towed obliquely to the surface from a maximum sampling depth that varied among years, but was usually > 50 m. All other samples from Canadian waters were collected as part of the DFO Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) using a 0.75-m diameter ring net (202-µm mesh) towed vertically to the surface from a depth of ~ 5 m above bottom or a maximum depth of 1000 m. Samples from the GoM were collected from the NOAA Marine Resources Monitoring, Assessment and Prediction and Ecosystem Monitoring Surveys (EcoMon), which used the same gear as the Mackerel Survey, but sampled from a depth of ~ 5 m above bottom or a maximum depth of 200 m. These data were supplemented with surveys from the western GoM, which used sampling methods identical to AZMP. When samples were not collected from near bottom to surface in the Mackerel Survey and EcoMon, the data were adjusted using a Generalized Additive Model to estimate the depth integrated abundance or biomass from near to bottom to surface. Annual anomalies correspond to those published in Sorochan et al. (2019) with exception of abundance and biomass of Calanus spp. from the GoM and southwest GSL, which have been slightly modified to reflect updates on the data inclusion and standardization. We also note that the linear model used to derive anomalies of Calanus spp. abundance and biomass in the GoM uses Month as a factor rather than Season, which was incorrectly reported in Table 3 of Sorochan et al. (2019)