Data from: Multi-tool marine metabarcoding bioassessment for baselining and monitoring species and communities in kelp habitats

The astonishing biological diversity found in Californian kelp forests
requires efficient and robust monitoring tools to better understand
ecological trends and mitigate against loss or disruption of ecosystem
services due to human pressure and climate changes. With environmental DNA
(eDNA) metabarcoding becoming a popular biodiversity assessment approach,
we set out to evaluate a combination of powerful, rapid and sustainable
eDNA solutions for characterizing marine community composition in
kelp-dominated habitats along the central California coast, in the newly
proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. We employed and
compared the efficiency of several eDNA collection approaches, including
‘traditional’ surface water filtration, the collection of organisms
encrusting cobble rocks and various deployments of an artificial passive
sampler, the metaprobe (i.e., attached to divers, dangled from a boat, and
cast from the shore using a fishing rod). By combining the information
from fish specific (Tele02 12S) and universal metazoan (COI) markers, we
‘captured’ 501 unique marine taxa, belonging to at least 36 phyla, over
400 of which were identified to genus/species level, and including 52
vertebrate species typical of Californian kelp forest ecosystems. Despite
differences in the type of biodiversity returned by the tested sampling
methods, the overall community structure of the surveyed area was highly
spatially structured and strongly influenced by the biogeographic break
around Point Conception (Humqaq). We discuss the benefits of integrating
eDNA metabarcoding in existing monitoring programs and devising a
reproducible approach to monitor faunal changes in kelp forest habitats
and beyond.