Marine Protected Areas require comprehensive monitoring to ensure objectives are achieved; however, monitoring natural ecosystems at scale is challenged by the biodiversity it aims to measure. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding holds promise to address this monitoring challenge. We conducted paired sampling at 54 sites for fish and invertebrate assemblages in the Northwest Atlantic using groundfish trawls and eDNA metabarcoding of benthic seawater using four genetic markers (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and CO1). Compared to trawling, eDNA detected similar patterns of species turnover, larger estimates of gamma diversity, and smaller estimates of alpha diversity. A total of 63.6% (42/66) of fish species captured by trawling were detected by eDNA, along with an additional 26 species. Of the 24 missed detections by eDNA, 12 were inevitable as they lacked reference sequences. Excluding taxa assigned to higher than species level and those without a species name, 23.6% (17/72) of invertebrate species captured by trawling were detected by CO1, which detected an additional 98 species. We demonstrate that eDNA is capable of detecting patterns of community assemblage and species turnover in an offshore environment, emphasizing its strong potential for a non-invasive, comprehensive, and scalable tool for biodiversity monitoring supporting marine conservation programmes.Cite this data as: Jeffery, N., Rubidge, E., Abbott, C., Westfall, K., Stanley, R. (2024): Data of: eDNA metabarcoding enriches traditional trawl survey data for monitoring biodiversity in the marine environment.Published: August 2024. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/43a91ba7-8025-4330-88db-db14022d729d

The Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest (AOI) is a large coastal AOI in the Maritimes Region spanning 2089 km2 and extending along 100 km of coastline. While much of the data that led to the area's designation as an AOI was collected in the nearshore coastal areas (i.e., seagrass and kelp distributions, coastal bird nesting sites, herring spawning areas), there is less information available on the fish and invertebrate community structure in offshore areas of the AOI. Current offshore sampling effort is primarily focused in the Summer multi-species RV survey which covers the Scotian Shelf but does not sample within the depth range covered by the AOI (~ <100m depth). Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a promising approach for biodiversity monitoring that has been gaining increased attention in the marine realm. Through sampling relatively small volumes of water (~1-5 L), eDNA can capture of millions of fragments of eDNA on filters that can then be sequenced to identify the species composition of an area. eDNA metabarcoding is based on the foundations of DNA barcoding, where species are identified solely by their unique DNA sequences. eDNA metabarcoding relies on a comprehensive reference library of gene sequences from known species to rapidly identify which species are captured in every water sample. This method is relatively simple, efficient (with the ability to characterize both fish and invertebrate diversity), and non-invasive, meaning there is no disruption of sensitive benthic habitats or need to dissect tissue samples from captured fish and invertebrates. eDNA has been shown to be comparable to other biodiversity censusing techniques and has the potential to rapidly conduct biodiversity surveys over a relatively large area, such as the Eastern Shore Islands AOI. Our eDNA sampling in the Eastern Shore Islands targets fish and invertebrates using multiple genetic markers (e.g., 12S and COI) to obtain baseline information on these communities across transects spanning from inshore to offshore in the AOI. Over time, we will investigate changes in species richness and community composition using annual eDNA surveys as an ongoing monitoring tool for this coastal region. Cite this data as: Jeffery, N.W. Environmental DNA Monitoring in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest - Offshore. Published: April 2026. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth NS.

The Common Attribute Schema for Forest Resource Inventories (CASFRI) is a Canadian forest resource inventory data repository. Forest resource inventory datasets in CASFRI are harmonized to a common data model so that data collected by different agencies following different standards can be used together. Participating provincial, territorial and federal government departments and agencies share current and historical map-based forest resource inventory datasets through CASFRI so that their data are available to users who’s areas of interest span multiple jurisdictions. CASFRI was originally developed by academic researchers (Cumming et al., https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2014-0102). This flavour of CASFRI (CASFRIv5) was developed anew in collaboration with academic researchers at the University of Laval to provide a government version of CASFRI that is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. It uses the most up-to-date forest inventory data provided by participating provincial, territorial, and federal government departments and agencies. CASFRIv5 is hosted on the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers’ data portal, the National Forest Information System (http://nfis.org).

Major buildings and municipal services.attributes:ID - unique identifierSubtype - Item subtypeName - Building or department name**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Public parking spaces in downtown Sherbrooke.attributes:Location - Location of the parking spaceName - Name of the parkingNumber - Number of the parking meterType - Type of parkingLevel - Level of the parking spaceLevel - Level of the parking space**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

This data set contains a small sub-set of the WHSE_FOREST_TENURE.FTEN_RECREATION_POLY_SVW layer, in point form, with minimal attribution for the purpose of displaying a select set of high value recreation sites. For access to complete listing of Forest Recreation sites please use [Recreation Polygons WHSE_FOREST_TENURE.FTEN_RECREATION_POLY_SVW](http://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/263338a7-93ee-49c1-83e8-13f0bde70833)

This is a spatial layer showing Ministry of Forests Map Notation Lines. These are the linear spatial representation for a notation on the Forest Atlas which records the area of interest of other government agencies and individuals

This is a spatial layer showing Ministry of Forests Map Notation Polygons. These are polygonal spatial representation for a notation on the Forest Atlas which records the area of interest of other government agencies and individuals

Buildings located on the territory of the City of Sherbrooke and belonging to one of the following categories: business, hospital, school or municipal building. These categories are respectively associated with subtype codes 2, 3, 4, and 5 attributes:ID - Unique IdentifierSubtype - Building Subtype Code (2 - Business, 3 - Hospital, 4 - Hospital, 4 - School, 4 - School, 5 - Municipal Building)**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Polygon layer containing an archaeological reference grid established by Charles Borden. Similar to the BCGS grid or TRIM grid system. All archaeological sites in Canada are numbered based on this grid