High-throughput eDNA monitoring of fungi to track functional recovery in ecological restoration: OTU raw data matrix 

We present a High-throughput eDNA dataset of fungi to track functional recovery in ecological restoration in the form of an OTU raw data matrix. We generated a total of 4,993,144 ITS fungal raw reads (118,884 ± 42,210 SD per replicate) across the 42 replicates. A total of 4,955,680 fungal sequences (117,430 ± 42,164 SD per replicate) remained for further analysis after quality filtering. The OTU data provide information on fungal flux at this restoration site through a stagger of years and can be used accordingly. 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We thank A. Bissett, S. Kennedy, Z. Baruch, S. Caddy-Retalic, L. Clarke, S. Kennedy, I. Fox, M. Laws, K. McCallum, and J. McDonald for technical and field assistance. We are grateful for support from the BASE project, Australian Genome Research Facility, BioPlatforms Australia, and SA Water. This work was supported by Australian Research Council funding to AJL and MFB (DE150100542; DP150103414), and China Scholarship Council funding to DY (201408410176). We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the BASE project partners DOI 10.4227/71/ 561c9bc670099, an initiative supported by Bioplatforms Australia with funds provided by the Australian Commonwealth Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. 

This project was conducted during the author's PhD. The OTU data was generated for the manuscript titled "High-throughput eDNA monitoring of fungi to track functional recovery in ecological restoration" that uses eDNA assessment to provide a significant extension to current restoration monitoring practice. 

eDNA metabarcoding: Three 25 m x 25 m quadrats were randomly selected per site, giving a total of 24 quadrats across the 8 sites. Soil was sampled from the 0-10 cm and 20-30 cm soil horizons at each quadrat. A representative 50 g sample of soil was collected at each of these 24 quadrats by pooling nine soil samples from each soil depth, including soil from open areas and under plants. These nine soil samples were pooled into a sterile plastic bag, and homogenized using a sterilized trowel. All soil samples (n = 48) were frozen on site in sterile 50 mL falcon tubes until DNA extraction hereafter referred to as technical replicates.