North Atlantic Fish Predator-Prey Diet Matrix for Feeding Guild Analysis

North East Atlantic and its marginal seas are the geographic scope for this dataset of trophic interactions. It contains taxonomic information and a diet matrix for fish species-size-classes and their prey, used to produce feeding guilds via cluster analysis for a 2020 study. The data underpins a proposed food web indicator for policy assessments under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the OSPAR Convention.

Use Cases

• Cluster analysis to define fish feeding guilds based on diet similarity
• Assessing environmental change impacts on marine ecosystem structure and functioning
• Informing food web status assessments for the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive
• Calibrating or validating trophic models for the North East Atlantic region

Strengths

• Data supports a peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of Applied Ecology (Thompson et al., 2020)
• Explicitly designed for policy-relevant indicator development under major international frameworks
• Covers a long temporal range, spanning from 1836 to 2013

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row count, column names, file size, and license are unknown
• Metadata conflicts: 'last updated' date is provided on one platform (2026-06-11) but is absent on another
• Dataset descriptions are identical across platforms, suggesting no additional detail is available

Provenance

Source

Marine Environmental Data & Information Network

Collection Method

Data compiled for cluster analysis to produce feeding guilds.

Time Range

1836-2013

Freshness

2026-06-11

Geography

North East Atlantic and its marginal seas