Evaluating airborne eDNA for detecting Myotis bats: Field trials and winter hibernacula surveys

Given the threats of white-nose syndrome to hibernating Myotis bats, this project investigates the potential and limitations of using airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) as a detection tool for bats in difficult-to-access hibernacula in British Columbia, Canada. Having piloted a recently published qPCR assay against airborne eDNA samples from these roosts, any eDNA samples that indicated detection of the Myotis genus were pooled with other positive samples from the same roost site and then were subject to independent DNA metabarcoding for species identification. This PCR amplicon dataset was generated using the Species from Feces COI (SFF) mini-barcode primer set (Walker et al., 2016), which was developed for improved recovery of bat species. The dataset contains metabarcoding data from all pooled airborne eDNA samples (genomic DNA) as well as all experimental no-template and positive controls prepared alongside the sample libraries.