Datasets stored in this repository come from globally-distributed, unfractionated (>0.2µm) DNA samples collected on *BioGEOTRACES*, *GO-SHIP*, *AMT*, *POTATOE*, and *HEOBI/K-AXIS* sampling campaigns. They were amplified using the 515Y/926R primer pair (Parada et al., 2015) which simultaneously amplifies both 16S and 18S from most marine taxa (including *Bacteria*, *Archaea*, and *Eukarya*, which even includes the SSU rRNA of animals). Therefore, these data are a rough description of the **entire community** which is why we refer to them often as "*full-community metabarcoding*" datasets.
**Note**: There is a companion github repository (https://github.com/jcmcnch/Global-rRNA-Univeral-Metabarcoding-of-Plankton) that contains more detailed information on bioinformatic and metadata processing steps.
This repository is divided into several folders, sorted by cruise (or cruise sections that naturally fit together such as P16N & S). Each folder contains separately-processed ASV tables for both molecules, merged ASV tables containing our best estimation of the true relative abundance of both molecules together (adjusting for 18S sequencing bias), as well as the final spreadsheets used for uploading to Simons CMAP. Trimmed and/or sorted 16S/18S sequences are available upon request (raw reads will be deposited at NCBI),
Some geochemical / physicochemical covariates will be available in CMAP directly associated with these amplicon abundances, and yet other covariates will be stored in separate datasets in CMAP. They can be colocalized with these amplicon data using CMAP's built-in functionality.
Taxonomic assignments provided here are derived from SILVA138.1 / PR2 4.14.0 (where PR2 is used for chloroplasts & 18S, while SILVA138.1 is used for all other 16S sequences such as Bacteria and Archaea). These are not perfect and in some cases may not reflect all available expert knowledge. For the purposes of assigning phytoplankton functional traits to these ASVs, a separate repository has been created *here*, which is a work in progress.
