Experimental environmental DNA decay data for European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) under three temperature conditions using ddPCR

An experiment was carried out to estimate eDNA decay rates using ddPCR. For this , in April 2021 water with eDNA shed by European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax Linnaeus, 1758) was kept at three temperatures (13°C, 20°C, and 27°C) and sampled over 26 hours. A total of 120 L of seawater was collected from a scientific aquaculture facility supplied with continuously renewed (hourly) sand-filtered seawater originating from the Bay of Biscay and maintained at an ambient temperature of approximately 13 °C. The collected water was distributed into 20-L experimental tanks, resulting in two independent replicates (A and B) for each temperature treatment (13 °C, 20 °C and 27 °C). Target temperatures were reached and maintained using decontaminated immersion heaters.
Over the course of the experiment (0–26.5 h), 2-L water samples were collected at multiple time points (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 23 and 26 h) and filtered using 0.8 µm filtration capsules. Filtration was performed with a peristaltic pump to avoid direct contact between the water and the pumping system, and single-use sterile material was employed throughout to limit contamination. After filtration, capsules were filled with conservation buffer and stored at room temperature. DNA extraction and analysis were carried out by a specialized forensic DNA laboratory (SINSOMA). In total, 75 samples were analyzed using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR)  with a primer specifically developed for seabass (Trenkel et al. 2025), with three technical replicates analyzed per filter.
Data content:
- Metadata/: contains experimental metadata including tank, temperature treatment, sampling time, filter ID, and measured water temperature.
- ddPCR/: contains raw ddPCR outputs and DNA concentration estimates for each sample.