Leech blood-meal iDNA reveals differences in Bornean mammal diversity across habitats

This data set includes the data used in Drinkwater et al. (2020) Leech blood-meal iDNA reveals differences in Bornean mammal diversity across habitats, submitted to Molecular Ecology. There are three sets of data based on the biomonitoring of mammals using iDNA extracted from leeches collected across the SAFE project (and DVCA) in 2016. At each site in the SAFE landscape 20 minute handsearches took place within the boundaries of fixed 25m2 vegetation plots. For these analyses we only used Haemadipsa picta individuals, as previous studies have revealed species differences between H. picta and H. zeylanica in the SAFE area. With metabarcoding techniques, first we extracted and amplified the 16S rRNA region of mammal DNA, from site-matched pools of leeches using PCR and specific mammal primers. NGS sequencing was used and the short fragments were then identified using in silico PCR with ecoPCR and OBITOOLS (metabarcoding packages) to assign taxonomy to the unknown sequences. We then analysed diversity in different habitats across the landscape and included microclimate data, from LiDAR scans of the landscape as variables which could impact the detection of mammals.

Authors

• Drinkwater, Rosie — Queen Mary University of London
• Jucker, Tommaso — University of Bristol
• Potter, Joshua H. T. — Queen Mary University of London
• Swinfield, Tom — University of Cambridge
• Coomes, David A — University of Cambridge
• Slade, Eleanor M. — Nanyang University Singapore & University of Oxford
• Gilbert, M. Thomas P. — University of Copenhagen & Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Lewis, Owen T. — University of Oxford
• Bernard, Henry — Universiti Malaysia Sabah
• Struebig, Matthew J. — University of Kent
• Clare, Elizabeth L. — Queen Mary University of London
• Rossiter, Stephen J. — Queen Mary University of London

Keywords

• biodiversity
• Borneo
• Haemadipsidae
• Invertebrate-derived DNA
• molecular biomonitoring
• microclimate

Funders

• NERC (NE/K016148/1)
• NERC (NE/S01537X/1)

Permits

• Research — Sabah Biodiversity Council (JKM/MBS.1000 2/2 (34))
• Research — Sabah Biodiversity Council (JKM/MBS.1000 2/3 JLD.2 (107))
• Export — Sabah Biodiversity Council (JKM/MBS.1000 2/3 JLD.3 (44))
• Research — Danum Valley Conservation Area (YS/DVMC/2016/253)

Worksheets

Files

• Drinkwater2020-iDNA_diversity3.xlsx

Taxa

43 GBIF taxa, 0 sequence-derived taxa.