DOI: 10.5061/dryad.70rxwdc95
title: Data for: Transient shifts in Bering Sea shelf phytoplankton size structure in response to wind-induced mixing

description: Phytoplankton play a major role in the global carbon cycle and provide
 food for primary consumers. Phytoplankton community size structure
 influences the deposition of organic matter to benthic food webs, and
 energy transfer to higher trophic levels. Phytoplankton assemblages that
 are dominated by small cells have low trophic transfer efficiency and high
 internal recycling, whereas food webs dominated by large phytoplankton
 have high energy transfer and shorter, more efficient food webs. Using the
 associated we assessed phytoplankton spring and summer community size
 variation on daily to seasonal scales in the Bering Sea over three years
 using moored profilers, random forest modeling, and ship survey data. We
 show that the spring bloom is dominated by large phytoplankton, followed
 by the predominance of small phytoplankton near the surface after the
 bloom. We find that summer wind mixing events result in short pulses of
 increases in large phytoplankton and enhanced primary production rates,
 particularly of larger cells, events that provide important dietary
 contributions to zooplankton consumers.
description: Dataset for publication entitled " Transient shifts in
 Bering Sea shelf phytoplankton size structure in response to wind-induced
 mixing" insitu shipborne measured
 chl-a (total and size fracitions) for the Bering sea shelf
 Moored profiling crawler data from the M2 mooring site (Eastern
 Bering Sea) modeled size fraction data from the M2
 mooring site (Eastern Bering Sea). Wind data used for
 analyses  For the most updated versions it
 is recommened to always contact Margaret Sullivan or Phyllis Stabeno
 (mooring data) and Jeanette Gann (survey chla data) 
description: # Data for: Transient shifts in Bering Sea shelf phytoplankton size
 structure in response to wind-induced mixing Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.70rxwdc95](10.5061/dryad.70rxwdc95) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Metadata file for Nielsen et al. (in review).
 *Transient shifts in Bering Sea shelf phytoplankton size structure in
 response to wind-induced mixing* The following data files were used to
 create the analyses in the paper. File headings and units for each data
 column within files are defined. "NA" values denote not
 available.   ### **In-situ measured survey data in the eastern Bering Sea
 (2003-2021).** File name: “BASIS_data_may2025_nielsen_v1.csv” *
 total_chla: Total chlorophyll-a concentration (µg l-1) * chla_greater10:
 chlorophyll-a concentration (µg l-1) of the greater than 10 µm size
 fraction * surf_temp: surface layer temperature (°C) * Bottom_depth:
 station sampling bottom depth (meters) * Depth: sample depth (meters)  *
 Longitude: degree longitude (°W)       * Latitude: degree latitude (°N) *
 date: date of sampling   ### **Prawler modeled size fraction and measured
 total chl-a and environmental data from 2017-2019** File name:
 DRYAD_prawler_2017_2019_sizePredicted_1meter_Nielsen_may2025.csv * Date:
 daily average estimate from the 2 hourly prawler data measurement and
 calculations * round_depth: depth in 1 meter bins (unit: meters) *
 total_chla: Total chlorophyll-a concentration (µg l-1) * surf_temp:
 Surface layer temperature (above mixed layer depth), °C * Latitude: degree
 latitude (°N) * Longitude: degree longitude (°W) * Bottom_depth: station
 sampling bottom depth (meters) * pred_10great: modeled chlorophyll-a
 concentration (µg l-1) of greater than 10 µm * frac_great10: proportion of
 greater than 10 µm chl-a relative to the total chl-*a*       *
 calc_10small: modeled chlorophyll-a concentration (µg l-1) of smaller
 than10 µm. Calculated based on subtraction of the predicted modeled large
 chl-a to the total chla * frac_10small: proportion of smaller than 10 µm
 chl-a relative to the total chl-*a* Note that the full Prawler and weather
 data are available at
 [https://data.pmel.noaa.gov/pmel/erddap/tabledap/ecofoci_prawler.html](https://data.pmel.noaa.gov/pmel/erddap/tabledap/ecofoci_prawler.html) and [https://data.pmel.noaa.gov/pmel/erddap/tabledap/weatherpak_m2.html](https://data.pmel.noaa.gov/pmel/erddap/tabledap/weatherpak_m2.html) ### **Wind stress data from ERA5** File name: dryad_all_windstress_dataused_fig3_fig4_2017_2019_made_may2025_nielsen.csv * time_ak: Time (Alaska time zone)           * u_star3 : hourly wind stress u*3 (m3 s-3) * ustar3_1daysmooth: 1 spline smoothed wind stress u*3 (m3 s-3) ### **Daily NCP data from 2018** File name: DRYAD_noel_NCP_2018_raw_dailyCalcs_Nielsen_may2025.csv * Doy: day of year (Julian date) * NCP: daily net community production (µmol O2 l-1\_ d-1) \* note that these data were previously used in Nielsen et al., (2023). citation Nielsen, J. M. and others 2023. Seasonal dynamics of primary production in the southeastern Bering Sea were assessed using continuous temporal and vertical dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll‐a measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans: e2022JC019076