Climate-induced shifts in plankton blooms may alter fish recruitment by affecting the fatty acid composition of early-life diets and corresponding performance. Early-life nutrition may immediately affect survival but may also have a lingering influence on size and growth via experiential legacies. We explored the short- and longer-term performance consequences of different concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) for juvenile Walleye (Sander vitreus, Mitchill 1818). For the first 10 d of feeding, juveniles were provided Artemia enriched with: oleic acid (low PUFA), high docosahexaenoic acid and high eicosapentaenoic acid (high PUFA), or high PUFA and a form of vitamin E (high PUFA + E). After 10 d, all fish were fed a high-quality diet and reared for an additional 27 d. Juveniles fed either high PUFA diet were 1.15-fold larger (PUFA mean ± SD = 20.0 ± 3.3 mg; PUFA + E = 19.8 ± 3.3 mg) than those fed the low PUFA (17.3 ± 2.8 mg) diet after 10 d of feeding. After 27 days, juveniles initially fed the high PUFA diet were still 1.10-1.20-fold larger (PUFA = 407.0 ± 61.6 mg; PUFA + E = 422.7 ± 58.7 mg) than those initially fed the low PUFA diet (356.5.0 ± 39.5 mg). Our findings demonstrate that fatty acid composition of juvenile Walleye diets has immediate and lingering size effects. As changes in climate continue to alter lower trophic levels, fish management and conservation may need to consider short- and long-term effects of temporal or spatial differences in early-life diet quality.

Data included are from experiments performed on Walleye larvae and juveniles during 2018. Data are contained in .csv files reflecting measures of performance (survivorship, swimbladder inflation, size, growth) and molecular composition of whole body tissues (fatty acids, alpha-tocopherol). These data are processed, analyzed, and visualized within the R scripts included. All analyses and plots within the manuscript "Experiential legacies of early-life dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content on juvenile Walleye: Potential impacts from climate change" can be replicated with these data and R scripts.

The metadata file "README_Almeida_et_al_EFF_final.txt" contains general information about the R scripts and the data files, including definitions for the variables within the datafiles. Each R script file also includes brief metadata at the top of the script and comments throughout the script explaining the analyses and data manipulation.