Datasets from PhD thesis: "Integrating classical and DNA-based approaches to advance the field of paleolimnology: Case studies of a warm monomictic lake"

The general objectives of my PhD were to evaluate the advantages and limitations to using DNA-based methods in paleolimnology and to evaluate the ecological trajectory of Cultus Lake, British Columbia, using both classical paleolimnological and DNA-based approaches. The datasets therein were generated for my PhD thesis.

Firstly, a 36-month sediment trap time series was developed to evaluate which DNA taxa can be deposited in the sediments and potentially be used as indicator taxa in paleolimnological studies. Congruence between morphological and DNA identification in water and sediment trap samples was also assessed specifically for diatoms and crustaceans. The data generated include mass accumulation rate and carbon accumulation rate, carbon and nitrogen percentage, morphological counts for diatoms and cladocerans in the sediment traps, DNA quantity for water and sediment trap samples, metabarcoding of a fragment of the V7 region of the 18S rRNA gene.

Secondly, a multi-proxy paleolimnological study was developed to evaluate the ecological changes in Cultus Lake and the potential drivers of the changes. From this study, sedimentary delta 15N, delta 13C, percentage of carbon, percentage of nitrogen, pigments were measured and diatoms and cladoceran remains were counted and identified from a sediment core collected in 2008. The data for this project are part of a publication accepted in May 2020 in Journal of Paleolimnology: Gauthier et al (In press) Ecological dynamics of a peri-urban lake: a multi-proxy paleolimnological study of Cultus Lake (British Columbia) over the past ~200 years. doi: 10.1007/s10933-020-00147-9.

Thirdly, a paleo-genetic project was developed to compare the ecological changes observed with sedimentary DNA with those observed with classical paleolimnological approaches. The same fragment of the V7 region of the 18S rRNA gene was targeted, percentage of carbon and nitrogen were also measured as well as DNA quantity for all intervals subsampled in a sediment core collected in 2017.

The datasets usually come with a description of the data and meaning of abbreviations whether needed. DNA datasets will be publicly released upon acceptance of the manuscripts. For more information about the projects, methods and results, please refer to my PhD thesis published at McGill University. The number in front of the name of each file represents the chapter for which the data were generated.