Fish taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic composition variations recovered from eDNA metabarcoding along the coast of Curacao

In February 2020, we collected a total of 20 water samples, from 10 stations, with two filtration replicates per station, in the two investigated coastal areas. Each station consisted of a transect of 2 km at an overall constant distance from the coast. We recorded the GPS coordinates at the start and end of the transect, which we used to map the transect positions. We conducted eDNA sampling by using a filtration device composed of an Athena® peristaltic pump (Proactive Environmental Products LLC, Bradenton, Florida, USA; nominal flow of 1.0 L/min), a VigiDNA® 0.20 μM cross-flow filtration capsule (SPYGEN, le Bourget du Lac, France) and disposable sterile tubing for each filtration capsule. We performed two filtration replicates in parallel on each side of a boat, at each station, for 30 min corresponding to a volume of ~30 L of water filtered by each capsule. At the end of each filtration, the water inside the capsules was emptied, and we filled the capsules with 80 ml of CL1 Conservation buffer (SPYGEN, le Bourget du Lac, France) and stored at room temperature. We followed a strict contamination control protocol in both field and laboratory stages (Valentini et al., 2016). Each water sample processing included the use of disposable gloves and single-use filtration equipment to avoid any risk of contamination. Libraries were prepared with ligation using the MetaFast protocol (Fasteris).