The endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga population is in decline and has shown no signs of recovery despite multiple protection measures. Changes in prey availability and exposure to organohalogen contaminants have been proposed as potential factors limiting the its recovery. Studies on SLE belugas show that exposure to contaminants may actually disrupt the individual’s energy metabolism. However, whether this translates into changes in energy reserves and body condition of individuals is still unknown. This dataset was developed to study the potential relationships between the body condition of individuals and their concentrations of organohalogen contaminants and lipid metabolites.
The sampling consisted in the recovery of 51 beluga carcasses (37 females and 14 males) stranded in the St. Lawrence estuary between 1998 and 2016 and deemed fresh enough (Geraci-Lounsbury code = <3) to undergo a laboratory necropsy. The necropsy included the following procedures: determination of cause of death, morphometric measurements, sampling of the outer layer of blubber, age measurement and assessment of physical condition. The blubber samples were then subjected to lipid extraction and measurement of their concentration of polybrominated or emerging flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides. Their concentration of the following lipid metabolites were also measured: fatty acids, acylcarnitines, lysophosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylcholines and sphingomyelins. The methods are described in further detail in Bernier-Graveline et al. (2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110272). Data quality control procedures included triplicate analyses of method blanks and standard reference material.
This dataset contains morphometric measurements, sex and age, cause of death, a body condition index, the relative proportion of lipids in blubber, the concentration of polybrominated or emerging flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCB) and organochlorine pesticides and derived products.
The contact for the main co-authors of Bernier-Graveline et al. (2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110272) are included in the file "Authors_contact_auteurs.pdf"