Author Contributions
Designed the research: Pierre Taberlet, Tony Dejean, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Frédéric Boyer, Alice Valentini, Aurélie Bonin, Albin Meyer, Philippe Usseglio-Polatera
Performed research: Alice Valentini, Aurélie Bonin, Albin Meyer, Coline Gaboriaud, Pierre Taberlet, Tony Dejean, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Frédéric Boyer, Philippe Usseglio-Polatera
Analyzed data: Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Frédéric Boyer, Aurélie Bonin
Wrote the paper: Gentile Francesco Ficetola wrote the first draft of the paper, with subsequent contribution of all the authors
Figure legends
Figure 1. Amplification rate of the three markers across benthic macroinvertebrate taxa. A): all taxa; B): insects only.
Figure 2. Completeness of the combined database, combining the sequences produced in this study with sequences retrieved from public databases. For each taxon, the plots report the proportion of European genera of macroinvertebrates with at least one sequence in the database.
Figure 3. Resolution of the three markers at the species, genus and family levels. The resolution is measured as the proportion of metabarcodes that are associated with a) at least two species; b) at least two genera; c) at least two families (non-identification), therefore low values of non-identification indicate a better performance of the markers.
Table 1. Inventory of macrobenthos specimens from which we extracted and amplified DNA.