Coastal Fish and Marine Mammal eDNA Detections from 2019-2021

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides a list of fish and marine mammal species detected via environmental DNA (eDNA) in water samples. The data covers 91 sampling stations between Forestville and Godbout, Quebec, with samples collected during summer and fall from 2019 to 2021. Species identification used the MiFish mitochondrial marker and a bioinformatics pipeline with a 95% similarity threshold for taxonomic assignment.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal patterns in species detection across the site and date fields to study seasonal biodiversity changes from 2019 to 2021.
• Map the spatial distribution of detected taxa using the station name and site fields across the 91 sampling stations.
• Validate eDNA metabarcoding results by comparing the list of taxa against a regional species list, as mentioned in the protocol.
• Assess the effectiveness of the MiFish marker for characterizing coastal fish and marine mammal communities from filtered water samples.

Strengths

• Data collection followed a rigorous protocol with negative field, extraction, and PCR controls to minimize contamination.
• Taxonomic assignments were verified by a biodiversity expert from the Maurice-Lamontagne Institute.
• Sampling covers 91 stations with 1 to 3 replicates per station, providing spatial replication.
• Sequencing was performed on a NovaSeq 4000 system, a high-throughput platform.

Limitations

• The dataset is limited to species detectable by the specific MiFish (12S) mitochondrial marker, which may not capture all biodiversity.
• Spatial coverage is restricted to the coastal region between Forestville and Godbout, Quebec, limiting broader geographic inference.
• The exact number of data rows and columns is unspecified, making it difficult to assess the dataset's scale and structure.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Coastal Environmental Baseline Data Program.

Collection Method

Environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from 2-liter water samples filtered at 1.2 µm, followed by library preparation, NovaSeq 4000 sequencing, and a bioinformatics pipeline using DADA2 and metabaR for analysis.

Time Range

2019 to 2021, with specific sampling in July-August 2019, October 2020, and May-August 2021.

Freshness

Data was last updated on the platform in March 2026, but the underlying sample collection ended in 2021.

Geography

Coastal waters between Forestville and Godbout on the Haute-Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada.