DOI: 10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkv8
title: Data from: Co-design of a citizen science study: Unlocking the potential of eDNA for volunteer freshwater monitoring

description: Citizen science is increasingly being promoted as a means of gathering
 more data to help inform the management of ecosystems. Involving the
 participants in the design of data collection activities is a form of
 co-design often proposed by those calling for a translational ecology. In
 addition, novel monitoring approaches have the potential to improve the
 quality of data collected by citizen scientists. We explored the potential
 of environmental DNA (eDNA) for vertebrate (mainly fish) species
 monitoring through a co-designed catchment monitoring strategy. Having
 been introduced to the potential of eDNA, citizen scientists designed and
 executed an eDNA-based survey of a small chalk stream catchment to explore
 questions of concern. The eDNA monitoring approach provided data about
 fish and other vertebrate diversity in the catchment which would have
 otherwise required sampling approaches difficult for citizen scientists.
 These data give a preliminary answer to some of the citizen scientists’
 priority questions and are comparable to fish data collected through
 traditional electrofishing surveys. Recommendations are offered for
 co-design and the use of novel research techniques by citizen scientists.
description: Codesigned sampling programme with citizen scientists. Citizen
 scientists collected and prepared water samples for subsequent
 metabarcoding.
description: Text is .xml, tabular data is .csv.
description: # Data from: Co-design of a citizen science study: Unlocking the potential
 of eDNA for volunteer freshwater monitoring ## Sample locations and
 species detected at each location using environmental DNA metabarcoding.
 Water samples for analysis collected from the River Bure catchment
 (Norfolk) by citizen scientists who co-designed the study. Methods for
 sample collection, treatment and analysis. # Data from: Co-design of a
 citizen science study: Unlocking the potential of eDNA for volunteer
 freshwater monitoring 1. ClarkeCodesignCitizenScienceSampleLocations2023
 Sample locations for water sample collection, one sample for eDNA
 extraction and analysis collected from each location. Location is given as
 GB Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference, X and Y coordinates and
 what3words /// The simplest way to talk about location Note sample number
 35 was contaminated with human DNA and yielded no other DNA hence the
 results files only include data for samples 1-34. 2.
 ClarkeCodesignCitizenScienceMetabarcodingMethod2023 Method description for
 eDNA analysis and metabarcoding. 3.
 ClarkeCodesignCitizenScienceFishPresenceAbsence2023 Fish presence-absence
 (1 denotes present) as detected by eDNA by sample. 4.
 ClarkeCodesignCitizenScienceVertebrateFamilyFrequencies2023 Frequency of
 family level detections per sample by eDNA metabarcoding 5.
 ClarkeCodesignCitizenScienceTaxonBySample2023 Proportion DNA sequence
 reads in each sample (columns) attributed to each taxon unit (rows).
 Species-level assignments were automatically retained if supported by
 unambiguous matches to reference sequences at 99% species detected