Data and code for: Accounting for temporal variation and correlation in environmental DNA sampling can improve ecological inferences

Environmental DNA (eDNA) concentration varies through space and time, and measurements collected close together are often correlated. Ignoring this dependence can inflate the rate of incorrect ecological inferences (Type I error rate). Although spatial correlation in eDNA has received considerable attention, temporal correlation has been less well studied. Statistical models and study designs that account for temporal correlation are increasingly important to understand time-dependent effects in complex systems. We developed a hierarchical model that separates temporal ecological variation from variability stemming from sampling and laboratory processes and applied it to four single-site eDNA time series collected over 17–24 days, three of which provided sufficient information for parameter estimation. We then used the empirically estimated parameter magnitudes in a simulation study to evaluate alternative temporal sampling designs that considered 1) how a fixed number of samples is all..., , , # Data and code for: Accounting for temporal variation and correlation in environmental DNA sampling can improve ecological inferences [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrg19](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrg19) ## Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables #### File: 22READINET_Summary_(gBlock_Standards)_240925.xlsx **Description:** FRESC data set ##### Variables * See Metadata.xlsx #### File: Metadata.xlsx **Description:** Metadata for the 4 data sets #### File: NOROCK_detectiondata.xlsx **Description:** NOROCK data set ##### Variables * See Metadata.xlsx #### File: READI_NET_temporal_eDNA_results_2022_UMESC_New.xlsx **Description:** UMESC data set ##### Variables * See Metadata.xlsx #### File: WARC_Temporal_Sampling_Data_Grass_Carp_Nov2022.xlsx **Description:** WARC data set ##### Variables * See Metadata.xlsx ## Code/software In the code repository (Data_Repository.zip), there are two folders, one for the empirical analyses and a ..., ,