Host development and environment influence the microbiomes of aquatic insects and riparian spiders

This dataset contains the output files from a DADA2 amplicon sequence variant (ASV) pipeline and PICRUSt2 functional prediction analysis of microbial communities associated with aquatic insects and riparian spiders collected from the Grand River Watershed, Ontario, Canada (August 2022). Samples include whole-body macroinvertebrate larvae and adults (Hydropsychidae, Heptageniidae, Chironomidae) and riparian spiders (Araneidae, Tetragnathidae) collected at eight sites spanning upstream and downstream locations relative to four wastewater treatment plant effluents (Waterloo, Hespeler, Kitchener, Caledonia). Bacterial 16S rRNA genes (v3-v4 region) were amplified using a nested PCR approach, sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform (300 bp paired-end), processed with DADA2 (v1.26), and taxonomy was assigned using SILVA v138, yielding 39,765 unique ASVs across 390 samples. Files included: README.txt: Full dataset documentation including methodological details, geographic coordinates, file descriptions, and variable definitions. taxatab_v34_silva138wsp_GrandRiver-MB23.csv: ASV taxonomy table classified against the SILVA 138 database (v3-4 primers), containing taxonomic assignments for all ASVs detected across samples. seqtab_v34_nochim_transposed_GrandRiver-MB23.csv: Chimera-filtered ASV sequence table (v3-4 primers) transposed to samples × ASVs format, containing read counts per ASV per sample. newpicrust2_out_pipeline-20251218.zip: PICRUSt2 output package generated on 2025-12-18, containing predicted metagenome functional profiles and pathway abundances inferred from 16S rRNA ASV data. metadata_GrandRiver_MB23.csv: Sample metadata file containing sample identifiers and associated environmental or biological variables.