title: Metabarcoding of extraction blank
design: Extraction blank using 300 mL of dH20 following in place of recombined bulk community sample was performed using a modified protocol for the E.Z.N.A Blood Maxi Kit (OMEGA Bio-Tek, Georgia, USA). DNA metabarcoding on the bulk zooplankton sample was performed using a modified protocol for the E.Z.N.A Blood Maxi Kit (OMEGA Bio-Tek, Georgia, USA), and a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene was amplified in PCR using primers mlCOIintF: 5' GGWACWGGWTGAACWGTWTAYCCYCC 3' and jgHCO2198: 5' 5' TANACYTCNGGRTGNCCRAARAAYCA 3' (~313 bp; (Leray et al. 2013; Geller et al. 2013). PCR amplification was conducted in duplicate and products were pooled for library preparation. Pooled amplicons were purified using AMPure® XP beads (Beckman Coulter®), quantified using a Qubit® 1X dsDNA High Sensitivity Fluorescence kit (Thermofisher Scientific), and normalized to a concentration of 4ng/µL with molecular grade H20 prior to sequencing. Full methods description is reported at publication in Supplementary file S1.