CastillaLab/eDNA-Plant-Community: Seasonal and landscape influences on plant diversity in freshwater ecosystems: Insights from eDNA metabarcoding

Freshwater ecosystems provide critical services to human societies. However, the plant communities that sustain freshwater ecosystems face increasing threats from human activities, highlighting the need for effective monitoring strategies. While environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as a powerful, non-invasive tool for biodiversity monitoring, its application to plant community monitoring remains underutilized. This study evaluated the use of eDNA metabarcoding based on the orbcL2 marker to simultaneously quantify aquatic, terrestrial, and wetland plant community composition and diversity within and among 22 inland lakes in Michigan, USA.