Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species. fish eDNA metabarcoding bycatch

We performed an eDNA metabarcoding survey using universal fish primers on water samples collected from the German river Mulde to assess the fish and stream associated vertebrate (bycatch) community. Our aims were i) to test the effect of biological sample replication on the detected fish species richness, and ii) to investigate the detection rate of usually discarded bycatch vertebrate species.