Reef-building coral community composition revealed by seawater eDNA 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing in Wanshan Archipelago, South China Sea
This project contains paired-end 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing raw reads of seawater environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from coral reef habitats in Wanshan Archipelago, South China Sea. The sequencing was performed on Illumina MiSeq platform to investigate genus-level community structure of reef-building corals, explore the distribution pattern of coral assemblages, and provide baseline data for coral reef conservation. Sequences were amplified using universal 18S rRNA primers targeting Anthozoa, and raw reads were used for subsequent bioinformatic analysis including OTU clustering and taxonomic annotation.