DOI: 10.5061/dryad.442dv
title: Data from: Metabarcoding reveals environmental factors influencing spatio-temporal variation in pelagic micro-eukaryotes

description: Marine environments harbour a vast diversity of micro-eukaryotic organisms
 (protists and other small eukaryotes) that play important roles in
 structuring marine ecosystems. However, micro-eukaryote diversity is not
 well understood. Likewise, knowledge is limited regarding micro-eukaryote
 spatial and seasonal distribution, especially over long temporal scales.
 Given the importance of this group for mobilizing energy from lower
 trophic levels near the base of the food chain to larger organisms,
 assessing community stability, diversity and resilience is important to
 understand ecosystem health. Herein, we use a metabarcoding approach to
 examine pelagic micro-eukaryote communities over a 2.5-year time series.
 Bimonthly surface sampling (July 2009 to December 2011) was conducted at
 four locations within Mobile Bay (Bay) and along the Alabama continental
 shelf (Shelf). Alpha-diversity only showed significant differences in
 Shelf sites, with the greatest differences observed between summer and
 winter. Beta-diversity showed significant differences in community
 composition in relation to season and the Bay was dominated by diatoms,
 while the Shelf was characterized by dinoflagellates and copepods. The
 northern Gulf of Mexico is heavily influenced by the Mobile River Basin,
 which brings low-salinity nutrient-rich water mostly during winter and
 spring. Community composition was correlated with salinity, temperature
 and dissolved silicate. However, species interactions (e.g. predation and
 parasitism) may also contribute to the observed variation, especially on
 the Shelf, which warrants further exploration. Metabarcoding revealed
 clear patterns in surface pelagic micro-eukaryote communities that were
 consistent over multiple years, demonstrating how these techniques could
 be greatly beneficial to ecological monitoring and management over
 temporal scales.
description: Original Operational
 Taxonomic Unit (OTU) TableThis is the original
 operational taxonomic unit (OTU) table resulting from the sequences
 clustering prior to any filtering of OTUs.otu_table_mc2_w_tax_from_biom.txtFinal Operational Taxonomic Unit (fOTU) TableThe filtered operational taxonomic unit (OTU) table that excludes OTUs that failed to align with PyNAST or were classified as Archaea and Bacteria. This OTU table corresponds to the final OTU (fOTU) table listed in the manuscript.otu_table_mc2_w_tax_no_pynast_failures_bac_arc_removed_from_biom.txtCombined Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) TableThis operational taxonomic unit (OTU) table is the same as the final OTU (fOTU) table, EXCEPT the technical replicates have been combined into one sample. Therefore there are no A and B samples anymore and they are combined and treated as one sample.otu_table_mc2_w_tax_no_pynast_failures_bac_arc_removed_reps_combined_from_biom.txtRepresentative Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) SequencesThe sequences used as representatives for the different operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clusters. These sequences are the most abundant sequences found within the OTU cluster. These sequences were used for taxonomic assignment and sequence alignment as stated in the manuscript. Further detail can be found in the method section of the manuscript.rep_set.fna