Round goby detection by scuba divers’ visual assessments and environmental DNA in the Great Lakes, 2022

This dataset is associated with an examination of environmental DNA (eDNA) from the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) in parallel with visual surveys of fish count and size conducted by scuba divers in four Great Lakes: Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Round goby inhabits benthic areas, and it is known to have direct contact with the bottom substrate as it feeds on dreissenid mussels. Considering this, eDNA samples were derived from multiple substrates: lake bottom water, sediment, and benthic algae; each manually collected by scuba divers from 3 or 6-meter depths and eight distinct transects. eDNA samples were analyzed by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and results are expressed as DNA Copy Numbers (CN) per 1 mL of water or per 1 gram of wet weight of sediment or benthic algae. All eDNA samples for this dataset were collected alongside a larger body of work conducted in 2022 (https://doi.org/10.5066/P13JDUMH) and relate to multiple years of work at these stations that includes: algal and dreissenid mussel biomass, water quality assessments, and diver observations of dreissenid mussels, round gobies, benthic substrate, and benthic algal cover. We refer to the benthic algae also as the ‘Cladophora community’ and ‘submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV)’ in other published project data, which were collected starting in 2018 (Great Lakes Science Center, 2018).