Stellwagen Bank NMS 2021 Metabarcoding Biodiversity (16S, 18S, & 12S)

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, located in the Gulf of Maine off the coast of Massachusetts, is an actively managed MPA within the United States National Marine Sanctuary System. Its mission is to 'conserve, protect, and enhance the biological diversity, ecological integrity, and cultural legacy of the sanctuary while facilitating compatible use'. However, in recent decades, this rich ecological community has been under threat from numerous sectors including human development, fishery exploitation, and climate change. This study utilized environmental DNA metabarcoding to assess whole ecosystem biodiversity across all taxonomic levels in surface water, bottom water, and sediments collected in July 2021 from 39 sites spanning the Stellwagen Bank underwater plateau. Metabarcoding targets included prokaryote-specific 16S (Apprill et al. 2015, Parada et al. 2016), eukaryote-specific 18S (Fonseca et al. 2010), and vertebrate-specific 12S (Riaz et al. 2011) genes.