Rapid detection of subterranean fauna from passive sampling of groundwater eDNA

Groundwater is an essential source of freshwater that supports surface ecosystems as well as organisms adapted to living underground. The impacts of anthropogenic climate change, extraction, and pollution pose major threats to groundwater ecosystem health, prompting a need for efficient and reliable means to detect and monitor subterranean faunal communities. Conventional survey of subterranean fauna relies on the collection of organisms for morphological identification, which can be biased, labour intensive, and often indeterminate at lower taxonomic levels. Environmental DNA (eDNA)-based methods have been shown to dramatically improve on stygofaunal surveys, but currently rely on time-consuming active water filtration that limits the number of samples that can be processed. Passive eDNA sampling, which involves submersion of material (e.g. filter membrane, sponge, etc.) into the sampled environment for a fixed period, has previously shown promise as a viable alternative to active filt..., Study sites
The Pilbara is an ancient, geomorphologically stable region in northwest Western Australia that dates back 3.5 billion years (Buick et al., 1995). The climate is arid subtropical with hot, humid summers, and mild, dry winters. Rainfall is low and highly variable, most prevalent between November and April (summer wet season), and dependent on the passage of summer monsoon systems including cyclones.
Our study was conducted at two sites. The first, Barrow Island, is a limestone island located approximately 60 km off the mainland Pilbara coast, of Western Australia (Moro and Lagdon, 2013). The primarily karstic geology of the island provides a habitat for a well-documented and diverse subterranean fauna assemblage (Humphreys et al., 2013). The groundwater on Barrow Island comprises an anchialine aquifer (Humphreys, 2001b); that is, physico-chemically stratified waters where a freshwater lens that originates from seasonal rainfall overlies seawater with a transitional zone in be..., , # Data from: Rapid detection of subterranean fauna from passive sampling of groundwater eDNA

1. Author contact: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])
2. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): 2021
3. Geographic location of data collection: Pilbara, Western Australia, Australia

## SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0
2. Recommended citation for this dataset: van der Heyde, Mieke et al. (2024). Data from: Rapid detection of subterranean fauna from passive sampling of groundwater eDNA [Dataset]. Dryad. [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cfxpnvxb2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cfxpnvxb2)

## DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

#### File List:

A) Passive_COI.fasta
B) Passive_18S.fasta
C) Passive_COI_otus.fasta
D) Passive_18S_zotus.fasta
E) Passive_COI_taxonomy_OtuTable.xlsx
F) Passive_18S_taxonomy_zotuTable.xlsx
G) Passive_sample_metadata_dryad.xlsx
H) README.md

## Description of the data and file st...