Dataset: Metabarcoding zooplankton at station ALOHA: Operational taxonomic unit (OTU) tables and fasta files for representative sequences from each OTU (Plankton Population Genetics project)

This data submission consists of metabarcoding data for the zooplankton community in the epipelagic, mesopelagic and upper bathypelagic zones (0-1500m) of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The goal of this study was to assess the hidden diversity present in zooplankton assemblages in midwaters, and detect vertical gradients in species richness, depth distributions, and community composition of the full zooplankton assemblage. Samples were collected in June 2014 from Station ALOHA (22.75, -158) using a 1-meter square Multiple Opening and Closing Nets and Environmental Sampling System (MOCNESS, 200um mesh), on R/V Falkor cruise FK140613. Next generation sequence data (Illumina MiSeq, V3 chemistry, 300-bp paired-end) of the zooplankton assemblage derive from amplicons of the V1-V2 region of 18S rRNA (primers described in Fonseca et al. 2010). The data includes sequences and read count abundance information for molecular OTUs from both holoplanktonic and meroplanktonic taxa.  All results derive from analyses in mothur v1.36.1 (Schloss et al. 2009, Kozich et al. 2013).

Tables from four analyses are included in this submission:

1) 97_OTUtable: read counts for each OTU (clustered at 97% similarity) across 54 samples (depth, size fractionated), with NCBI BLAST results for the top representative sequence from each OTU. 

2) 97_OTU_subsampled: read counts for each OTU (clustered at 97% similarity), subsampled for even sequencing coverage across 54 samples (depth, size fractionated, with NCBI BLAST results for the top representative sequence from each OTU.

3) 99_OTU: read counts for each OTU (clustered at 99% similarity) across 54 samples (depth, size fractionated), with NCBI BLAST results for the top representative sequence from each OTU. 

4) 99_OTU_subsampled: read counts for each OTU (clustered at 99% similarity), subsampled for even sequencing coverage across 54 samples (depth, size fractionated), with NCBI BLAST results for the top representative sequence from each OTU.

Related dataset containing NCBI accession numbers for sequence data:
Metabarcoding zooplankton at station ALOHA: NCBI SRA accession numbers www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/700961