Fungi and invertebrate environmental DNA detections in soil samples from 21 sites across England, 2023

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This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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https://doi.org/10.5285/07c32201-c374-4432-a00b-832dedee571e

This dataset contains percentages, counts and metrics of fungi, invertebrates, and soil invertebrates from 656 soil samples collected from 21 Forestry England and partner sites across England throughout 2023. The sites included an ancient woodland National Nature Reserve, sitka spruce monocultures, heather moorland and breck heath. Important sites for nature recovery were also sampled: New Forest, Forest of Dean, and Wild Ennerdale.

The soil samples were collected as part of the Forestry England 2023 eDNA Survey. The primary aim of the survey was to establish a baseline in order to detect future change alongside reference sites.

Publication date: 2024-04-16

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More information

View numbers valid from 16 April 2024 Download numbers valid from 20 June 2024 (information prior to this was not collected)

Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Spatial information

Study area

Spatial representation type

Tabular (text)

Spatial reference system

OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Temporal information

Temporal extent

2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Provenance & quality

The soil samples were collected by project officers, district ecologists, and contractors using standard soil sampling approaches and kits provided by NatureMetrics. Nine subsamples were mixed to create a sample. Five samples were taken within a 5ha plot. Between three and ten plots were used per site. Environmental DNA metabarcoding was completed on samples using three primers, ITS2, 18S, and COI by NatureMetrics. NatureMetrics analysed all samples, including their standard quality assurance procedure, and provided the data to Forestry England. Forestry England checked the data and prepared it (e.g., conversion to CSV) for EIDC submission. Please note that several GPS coordinates in the metadata are thought to be inaccurate and are highlighted as such.

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:

Stringer, A.; Swan, D. (2024). Fungi and invertebrate environmental DNA detections in soil samples from 21 sites across England, 2023. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/07c32201-c374-4432-a00b-832dedee571e

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