Common Dolphin Foraging Ecology in the Celtic Seas, 138 Samples Over Three Decades

138 common dolphin stomach content samples collected over three decades were analyzed to provide updated dietary insights for the Celtic Seas ecoregion. The study examined dietary composition, trophic level, and energy intake in relation to variables like time period, season, sex, and body condition. The data was published by Sofia Albrecht on figshare in 2026 under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Modeling predator trophic level and energy intake based on stomach content analysis data.
• Analyzing temporal shifts in prey importance, such as the decline of Trisopterus spp., over the study period.
• Investigating relationships between dolphin foraging patterns and explanatory variables like season, maturity status, and body condition.
• Supporting ecosystem management by providing baseline data on common dolphin diet amid changing prey communities.

Strengths

• Sample size of 138 dolphins provides a basis for statistical modeling.
• Data spans three decades, allowing for analysis of temporal trends.
• Analysis includes multiple explanatory variables: time period, season, sex, maturity, length, body condition, and cause of death.

Limitations

• The dataset is described in a 1.4 MB PDF; the underlying tabular data is not directly accessible.
• Stomach contents represented only 18% of daily required intake, a noted limitation of the method.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the publication.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Sofia Albrecht.

Collection Method

Conventional stomach content analysis of stranded and bycaught dolphins.

Time Range

Sample collection spanned three decades (specific years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 04:14:24

Geography

Celtic Seas ecoregion.