Potential for microbially mediated nitrogen transformations in benthic algae, sediment, and overlying water in the Great Lakes, 2022

This dataset is associated with an examination of environmental DNA (eDNA) obtained from freshwater matrices (i.e. benthic algae, sediment, and near bottom water) collected by scuba divers from previously established transects located along the U.S. shoreline of Lakes: Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing (i.e., targeting bacterial communities) and high-throughput quantitative PCR targeting various N-cycle associated genes [the Nitrogen Cycle Evaluation (NiCE) chip] were performed to assess potential abundance and diversity of microbes involved in nitrogen transformations including nitrogen fixation. Sample-associated sequences are available in NCBI Bioproject: PRJNA1253336. All eDNA samples for this dataset were collected alongside a larger body of work conducted in 2022 (https://doi.org/10.5066/P13JDUMH) and relate to multiple years of work at these stations: briefly, algal and dreissenid mussel biomass, water quality assessments, and diver observations of dreissenid mussels, round gobies, benthic substrate, and benthic algal cover. We refer to the benthic algae also as the ‘Cladophora community’ and ‘submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV)’ in other published project data, which were collected starting in 2018 (Great Lakes Science Center, 2018).