Qualitative Analysis of Cyanotoxins in Lake Erie Samples Using Liquid Chromatography/High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC/HRMS) from July 2016 to October 2022

Toxic harmful algal blooms are caused by cyanobacteria and can pose a threat to freshwater ecosystems, including the western basin of Lake Erie. Bloom toxicity can be influenced by variation of biosynthetic repertoires of toxic cyanobacteria but is not well studied beyond microcystins. Water samples collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from July 2016 through October 2022 were filtered and extracted to be analyzed qualitatively by liquid chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry to help determine spatiotemporal patterns of cyanobacteria, cyanopeptides, and biosynthetic gene clusters by providing metabolomic data. The data files included in this data release describe a sample's identifying information, the chromatographic peak areas detected in a sample during qualitative analysis that indicates a potential compound match to a chemical structure within Thermo Fisher's Compound Discoverer 3.3 database, and a numerical peak rating used to identify the metabolic peaks within a sample. The peak rating combines peak quality and peak reproducibility and ranges from 0 to 10 with 10 being the best rating.