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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:title xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Metabarcoding of pond environmental DNA samples towards development of DNA-based metrics for the assessment of pond condition</dc:title>
  <dc:type xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">dataset</dc:type>
  <dc:identifier xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=009_CEFAS26f95f67-6ce8-46d6-8e4a-f5a7879fe28d</dc:identifier>
  <dc:description xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Metabarcoding of pond environmental DNA samples towards development of 
DNA-based metrics for the assessment of pond condition.

This project processed and sequenced water samples (c. 1 L volume) from 61 
freshwater ponds of varying habitat condition surveyed by Natural England as 
part of their England Ecosystem Survey. Additional, equivalent samples (48) 
from high quality freshwater pond habitats were provided by the Freshwater 
Habitats Trust. All samples were collected between May and September 2023, and 
sequenced in March 2024.

All pond water samples were processed to extract environmental DNA (eDNA), 
which was sequenced using five metabarcoding markers. This produced species 
lists for each sampled pond for five taxonomic groups: vertebrates, 
invertebrates, plants and fungi, microbial eukaryotes, and prokaryotes 
(bacteria and archaea). 

Alongside water samples, physicochemical and plant observation data were 
collected for all ponds surveyed, as presented in separate Natural 
England-commissioned reports. The analysis of pond sequence data alongside 
these data is subject to ongoing metric development.</dc:description>
  <dc:date xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">20250911 20250730</dc:date>
</oai_dc:dc>