Environmental DNA metabarcoding as a tool for biodiversity assessment and monitoring: Reconstructing established fish communities of north-temperate lakes and rivers

To evaluate the ability of precipitation-based environmental DNA (eDNA) sample collection and mitochondrial 12S metabarcoding sequencing to reconstruct well-studied fish communities in lakes and rivers. Specific objectives were to 1) determine correlations between eDNA species detections and known community composition based on traditional field sampling, 2) compare efficiency of eDNA to detect fish biodiversity among systems with variable morphologies and trophic states, and 3) determine if species habitat preferences predicts eDNA detection. Fish community composition was estimated for seven lakes and two MIssissippi River navigation pools using sequence data from the mitochonrial 12S gene amplified from 10 to 50 water samples per [...]