Marine biodiversity patterns in coastal Australian waters revealed by a three-year environmental DNA survey

Aim
To test the capacity of eDNA to characterise the spatial and seasonal patterns found within a range of zooplankton communities, and investigate links with concurrent abiotic data collected as part of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) programme.
Location
Samples were sourced seasonally for three years from nine Pan-Australian marine sites (n=90).
Methods
Here we apply a multi-assay metabarcoding approach to environmental DNA extracted from a rare long-term collection of bulk plankton samples. Six assays (targeting both the 16SrRNA and COI genes) were used to amplify and sequence the zooplankton diversity found within each sample. The data generated from each assay was filtered and clustered into OTUs prior to analysis. Abiotic IMOS data collected alongside the plankton collection enabled us to explore the physical and chemical drivers of community composition.
Results
The eDNA metabarcoding generated over 25 million sequences, identified in excess of 500 distinct ...