Data for: Assessing the relationship between blubber thickness and adipocyte size in beluga whales
Description
The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between blubber thickness and adipocyte size to determine their use as proxies for beluga whale body condition. This work focuses on blubber sampled from Hudson Bay beluga whales provided by Inuit from Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, during subsistence harvests 2021-2023. Blubber samples were also collected between 2015 and 2021 and analyzed to assess seasonal energy storage in Hudson Bay beluga whales. See Belanger et al., 2025 for study and dataset: Belanger, A.M., Roth, J.D., Ferguson, S.H., Friesen, O.C., Watt, C.A. Seasonal Flexibility in Energy Stores of Hudson Bay Beluga Whales: Insights from Blubber Lipid Analysis. Can J Zool 2025, 103, doi:10.1139/cjz-2024-0114. Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrqk Files and variables File: Stewart et al. 2026.csv Variables: - whale_ID: Beluga whale individual - layer: All cut in ~ 1cm3 - Outer - 1 cm subsample starting from the skin, along the depth of the blubber - Inner - 1 cm subsample starting from the end of the blubber, along the depth of the blubber - vac_count: Number of cells measured within the square analysis area - total_vac_area (đm^2): Total area of all measured cells - mean_vac_aread (đm^2): Mean area of all the measured cells - year: Year the sample was collected - sex: Genetically determined sex from tissues -F = Female -M = Male - bt (cm): Blubber thickness