eDNA metabarcoding survey of tropical north‐western Australia, Indian Ocean (2017-2018)

An eDNA metabarcoding survey of tropical north‐western Australia, Indian Ocean (2017-2018) collected 284 surface seawater samples from 71 mid-shelf, inshore, coastal and nearshore estuarine sites over 700 km of the north‐western Australian coastline. The metabarcoding assays targeting the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and CO1 genes which resulted in the detection of a wide range of bony fish (404 taxa), elasmobranchs (44) and aquatic reptiles (5). Inshore bony fish and elasmobranch communities, as well as coastal bony fish assemblages, were found to differ between the South and North Kimberley regions suggesting previously unrecognized subregional differentiation amongst these taxa. The overall compositional data have been used to update distribution information for a number of endangered, elusive and data-deficient taxa, including sawfish (family: Pristidae), northern river shark (Glyphis garricki) and wedgefish (genus: Rhynchobatus). Data accessed on 2022-03-14 from the linked Dryad Digital Repository referenced in the cited paper.