eDNA metabarcoding data for the publication 'Passive environment DNA (eDNA) sampling is effective for monitoring vessel biofouling in the Southern Ocean'

This data accompanies the paper 'Passive environment DNA (eDNA) sampling is effective for monitoring vessel biofouling in the Southern Ocean'. Samples were collected from the MPOV Aiviq in the Port of Hobart (-42.87, 147.34) and Macquarie Island (-54.500, 158.950) between September 2022 and October 2022. Passive absorption was used to collect eDNA, with perforated plastic balls with cellulose sponges inserted inside the balls were used as the eDNA absorption material. Samples were collected at four time points, prior to in-water cleaning (Hobart), during in-water cleaning (Hobart), post in-water cleaning (Hobart) and at Macquarie Island. All eDNA samples were amplified with two universal metabarcoding markers targeting the 18S rRNA gene V1-V3 region and part of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene to gain a wide overview of taxa present. For species-level identification of arthropod and mollusc taxa, samples were also amplified with two group-specific metabarcoding primer sets, each targeting a region of the 16S rRNA gene For each sampling period, we have included the raw, unmerged FASTQ data for each marker, the zOUT fasta files and the processed zOTU table with taxonomy. The R-files for the processing pipeline of FASTQ files and data analysis pipeline are also included to complete all the analysis detailed in the manuscript.