Data from: Using environmental DNA metabarcoding to monitor fish communities in small rivers and large brooks: Insights on the spatial scale of information Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek
Charlotte Van Driessche, Teun Everts, Sabrina Neyrinck, David Halfmaerten, Annelies Haegeman, Tom Ruttink, Dries Bonte, Rein Brys, Research Institute For Nature And Forest
Monitoring fish communities is central to the evaluation of ecological health of rivers. Not only presence/absence of species is important to assess, but also the species composition of local fish assemblages is a crucial parameter. Lotic fish communities are traditionally monitored via electrofishing, characterized by a known limited efficiency and high survey costs. The use of environmental DNA-based analyses could serve as a non-destructive alternative, but this approach requires further insights in practical sampling schemes incorporating transport and dilution of the eDNA fragments; as ...