Environmental DNA data from the RV Investigator South-East Australian Marine Ecosystem Survey (SEA-MES) voyages (IN2023_V05 and IN2024_V03)

Brief description

This data is from a CSIRO project which was funded through the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub - Project 4.23: “Environmental DNA for measuring offshore marine biodiversity: what can DNA in water collected from the RV Investigator tell us?”

The project generated a set of high-quality eDNA-based biodiversity datasets from samples collected at broadly distributed offshore sites across Southeast Australia. The data deposited here is processed data from eDNA metabarcoding assays (i.e. tables with sampling information, sequence read counts and taxonomy derived from the sequences), the raw sequence data (over 180 million sequences) is available on NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) under BioProject PRJNA1263580: Environmental DNA measuring offshore marine biodiversity in southeast Australia (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA1263580/).

The eDNA biodiversity information focussed on fish but includes sequence data from the full tree of life (from bacteria to vertebrates). Part of the purpose of data collection was to assess key technical aspects of eDNA data collection to refine sampling methods and provide guidance for best practices in future offshore eDNA research

Details of the project can be accessed here:
https://www.nespmarinecoastal.edu.au/project/4-23/

This final report is available on the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub website:
https://www.nespmarinecoastal.edu.au/publication/environmental-dna-for-measuring-offshore-marine-biodiversity-what-can-dna-in-water-collected-from-the-rv-investigator-tell-us/




Lineage: We collected eDNA samples from the CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator as part of the first two SEA-MES voyages: IN2023_V05 (July 2023) and IN2024_V03 (May 2024). Sampling occurring at sites along the edge of the continental shelf (~80 to 500 m) stretching from the east coast of Tasmania to Batemans Bay (NSW).
The eDNA samples primarily came from water collected from Niskin bottles on a CTD rosette. We also deployed an eDNA sampler on the deep tow camera system to collect eDNA when this device was towed along transects near the bottom.
During the two voyages, water was collected from over 100 CTD deployments, with most samples collected from near the surface and bottom. We used eDNA metabarcoding to obtain sequence information from the samples. This project used several different eDNA markers (also referred to as assays) allowing detection of a broad range of marine species. In total our sequencing of eDNA produced over 180 million sequences. Markers included Fish (mtDNA 16S), Metazoan (mtDNA COI Leray) and Eukaryote (V4 18S) and a panel of 12 different markers were generated (targets include bacteria, crustaceans, fish, etc.).