Metazoan diversity in Chilean hypersaline lakes unveiled by environmental DNA

Saline and hypersaline wetlands are biodiversity hotspots for metazoans such as aquatic invertebrates and wading birds. However, the survival of these habitats and their biota is increasingly threatened by a combination of pressures from climate change and extractive processes, jeopardizing the long-term ecological functioning of these ecosystems. With the goal of improving conservation efforts through state-of-the-art survey techniques in hypersaline ecosystems, this study tests the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) methods for metazoan biomonitoring. We employed a multi-assay approach utilizing three genetic markers—12S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and COI —to analyze biodiversity in two types of environmental substrates, sediment and water. These samples were collected from three hypersaline lakes situated at high altitude in Northern Chile: Salar de Atacama (Laguna Puilar), Salar de Pujsa, and Salar de Tara. In addition, we compared the eDNA outputs with results generated from aquatic macroinverte..., , , # Metazoan Diversity in Chilean Hypersaline Lakes Unveiled by Environmental DNA [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.80gb5mm08](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.80gb5mm08) ## Description of the data and file structure Metazoan Diversity in Chilean Hypersaline Lakes Unveiled by Environmental DNA Sample Barcode Information: `Chilean_Lakes_eDNA_Sample_Sequencing_Info.xlsx` ### Raw data files: **Single end libraries:** Chilean_Lakes_eDNA_12S_R1_001.fastq.gz Chilean_Lakes_eDNA_COI_fwh_R1_001.fastq.gz **Paired end Library:** Chilean_Lakes_eDNA_18S_R1_001.fastq.gz Chilean_Lakes_eDNA_18S_R2_001.fastq.gz