Trace elements and lipidomic datasets of stranding samples in the blubber of Turpsios truncatus from the Yucatan coast: Association with biological features

The Yucatan coastal zone is an area that contributes to many anthropogenic activities resulting in substantial contamination (metals, pesticides) in aquatic organisms. The dolphin is an excellent sentinel animal used in studying contamination in this area. Some substances found in dolphins have been identified as toxic causing alterations in the properties of membranes and produce lipid peroxidation especially heavy metals. The dataset presented here is associated with the research article paper entitled “Trace element and lipidomic analysis of bottlenose dolphin blubber from the Yucatan coast: Lipid composition relationships”. In this article, we presented the trace element concentrations found in blubber and their comparison with other studies performed in mammal marine organisms. Lipidomic characterization of bottlenose dolphin blubber and their association with trace elements and the differences related to biological characteristics were presented. This data provides a correlation analysis between trace element concentrations, lipid species and body length and the lipid differences related to biological characteristics such as growth stage, stranding code, and the presence of stomach contents. We used Spearman correlation analysis to identify the association with body length, trace elements and lipids. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to determine differences in lipids related to stranding code (3: moderate decomposition, 4: advanced decomposition), growth stage (juveniles and adults) and whether they showed presence of stomach contents or not. The data indicates that Cr, Cd and Zn concentrations were higher compared to concentrations found in blubbler of T. truncatus from other studies (See Table 3). Cr, Co, As and Cd were found in higher concentration in larger organisms compared to smaller ones. The results of correlation between lipids and body length showed a decrease in some ceramides (CER, DCER, HCER), sterols (CE), glycerolipids (TAG, DAG) and phosphatidylethanolamines (LPE, PE) in larger dolphins (Table 4). Dolphins with advanced decomposition (code 4) showed lower concentrations of phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) compared with organisms with moderate decomposition (code 3). Organisms with empty stomachs showed higher concentrations of phosphoethanolamines suggesting a preferential metabolism of energy-rich lipids over structural lipids. The information in these datasets may contribute to understanding the potential associations of trace elements, lipids and their associations with biological characteristics.


a b s t r a c t
The Yucatan coastal zone is an area that contributes to many anthropogenic activities resulting in substantial contamination (metals, pesticides) in aquatic organisms. The dolphin is an excellent sentinel animal used in studying contamination in this area. Some substances found in dolphins have been identified as toxic causing alterations in the properties of membranes and produce lipid peroxidation especially heavy metals. The dataset presented here is associated with the research article paper entitled "Trace element and lipidomic analysis of bottlenose dolphin blubber from the Yucatan coast: Lipid composition relationships". In this article, we presented the trace element concentrations found in blubber and their comparison with other studies performed in mammal marine organisms. Lipidomic characterization of bottlenose dolphin blubber and their association with trace elements and the differences related to biological characteristics were presented. This data provides a correlation analysis between trace element concentrations, lipid species and body length and the lipid differences related to biological characteristics such as growth stage, stranding code, and the presence of stomach contents. We used Spearman correlation analysis to identify the association with body length, trace elements and lipids. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to determine differences in lipids related to stranding code (3: moderate decomposition, 4: advanced decomposition), growth stage (juveniles and adults) and whether they showed presence of stomach contents or not. The data indicates that Cr, Cd and Zn concentrations were higher compared to concentrations found in blubbler of T. truncatus from other studies (See Table 3). Cr, Co, As and Cd were found in higher concentration in larger organisms compared to smaller ones. The results of correlation between lipids and body length showed a decrease in some ceramides (CER, DCER, HCER), sterols (CE), glycerolipids (TAG, DAG) and phosphatidylethanolamines (LPE, PE) in larger dolphins (Table 4). Dolphins with advanced decomposition (code 4) showed lower concentrations of phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) compared with organisms with moderate decomposition (code 3). Organisms with empty stomachs showed higher concentrations of phosphoethanolamines suggesting a preferential metabolism of energy-rich lipids over structural lipids. The information in these datasets may contribute to understanding the potential associations of trace elements, lipids and their associations with biological characteristics. ©

Value of the Data
• The data provides information of trace element concentrations found in blubber of bottlenose dolphin. • Concentrations of Cr, Cd and Zn were higher in this study compared to concentrations in blubber of T. truncatus from other studies. • Concentrations of Cr, Co, As and Cd, some ceramides, sterols, glycerolipids and phosphatidylethanolamines are influenced by the body length. • The data explores the biological characteristics such as growth stage, stranding code, and presence of stomach contents, body length and their association with lipid concentrations. • The data shown here is useful to other researchers that may explore the information about lipid differences between juveniles and adults, dolphins in moderate decomposition and advanced decomposition state, carcasses with stomach content and empty digestive tract.

Data Description
These data sets provide information of the association between trace elements, lipids and biological characteristics in blubber from bottlenose dolphin. Table 1 shows biological attributes such as gender and body length in addition to the stranding information. Table 2 presents all the trace element concentrations found in each organism from both areas, lateral region and dorsal fin. Table 3 presents a comparison of the results from this study and the concentrations found in other studies. This data shows that Cr, Zn and Cd are higher in this study. Table 4 shows the significant correlations found between trace elements, lipids and body length. All significant differences between lipids and growth stage, stranding code, and stomach content are presented in Table 5 , Figs. 1 and 2 .   Table 3 Trace element concentrations (mean ± SD; ranges in parenthesis; μg/g dry weight, * wet weight) in blubber of bottlenose dolphin ( T. truncatus ) from the literature. ≈4.7 ± 6.8 < 0.9 < 0.9 < 0.9 5.6 ± 8.2 --5 . 2 9.2 ± 1.6 ( < 0.8-12.6) (0.9-15) ± 3.5 (7.67-10.82) (nd-7.67) [7] -------8.96 -± 4.95 (2.09-21.29)      Table 5 Lipid significant differences related to biological features (Growth stage, stranding code and stomach content). The Wilcoxon rank-sum analysis was done only with data from samples of the lateral region. V represents the similarity between compared values. The further V-value is from zero, the smaller is p-value, meaning the more different are the medians. p < 0.05 were considered as significant.

Experimental Design, Materials and Methods
Blubber samples from two areas (lateral and dorsal fin) were collected from bottlenose dolphin stranded along the Yucatan coast. All the collected samples were authorized by the Secretary of Environmental and Natural Resources of Mexico (SEMARNAT) with permits No. SGPA/DGVS/02797/16, SGPA/DGVS/00403/17, SGPA/DGVS/007603/18 and SGPA/DGVS/06727/19. The strandings were attended by the Program of Investigation and Conservation of Marine Mammals of Yucatan (PICMMY-UADY) from Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. The samples were collected in situ from the lateral area, on the flank, below the dorsal fin of dolphins; except for dolphins Tt3, Tt6, Tt10 and Tt12, for which samples were collected from the lowest region of the dorsal fin. All the analysis was performed as is mentioned in [1] . Briefly, statistical processing was done using R software [2] . The mean, standard deviation and range were calculated for each element concentration. Correlation analysis between trace elements, lipids and body length was conducted using corr and Hmisc packages in the R software where p < 0.05 was considered as significant. Metaboanalyst 4.0 online platform was used to determine differences between biological characteristics (stranding code, stomach content and growth stage) with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; p < 0.05 considered as significant. Both the correlation analysis and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were done only with samples from lateral region to avoid variability.

Funding
This research is part of Cátedras CONACYT, a biotechnology of marine organisms project. This research was partially funded by the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT) -Mexican Ministry of Energy -Hydrocarbon Fund, project 201,441. This is a contri-bution from the Gulf of Mexico Research Consortium (CIGoM). Ixchel M. Ruiz-Hernández thanks CONACyT for the doctoral fellowship. This study is part of the Small Projects Program 2019 supported from the Mexican Society of Marine Mammals (SOMEMMA). This project was made possible by U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Shared Instrumentation (Grant 1S10OD018141-01A1 ; to N.D.D.).

Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.