18S rRNA gene metabarcoding data from a sediment resuspension experiment

Germination from plankton resting stages is often inhibited by burial and anoxic conditions in the sediment. Resuspension of surface sediments by storms might, therefore, represents an important mechanism that facilitates germination. We investigated the impact of sediment resuspension on planktonic protist community composition, assessed through 18S rRNA gene metabarcoding, by incubating sediment cores from Greifswald Bay (Baltic Sea) either undisturbed or with repeated resuspension events from March to July at rising temperatures. DNA was extracted from surface water samples taken during the retrieval of the sediment cores in Greifswald Bay, core supernatants that were repeatedly siphoned off during the experiment, and different layers of the sediment cores after the end of the experiment. Amplicons of the V3 region of the 18S rRNA gene were paired-end sequenced using the primers by Stoeck et al. (2010) with an Illumina NovaSeq 6000.