dc512697-ed50-40c5-a3cd-1774000444b9 Eftychia Tzafesta LifeWatch ERIC Data Scientist eftychia.tzafesta@lifewatch.eu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3330-2163 Eftychia Tzafesta LifeWatch ERIC Data Scientist eftychia.tzafesta@lifewatch.eu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3330-2163 Martina Pulieri University of Salento Research assistant martina.pulieri@unisalento.it https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9691-1989 Information Manager 2025-05-20 English This dataset was compiled as part of a global meta-analysis investigating how environmental and methodological factors influence the detection probability of environmental DNA (eDNA) in aquatic ecosystems. It contains harmonized data extracted from 22 published studies that compared eDNA-based detection methods with traditional biodiversity surveys across various aquatic environments. Key environmental variables include temperature, UV radiation, and salinity. Methodological descriptors include filter pore size and DNA fragment length. Environmental factors Sandy Beach Thesaurus Environmental DNA Traditional methods AGROVOC biodiversity water temperature Environmental Thesaurus Free for use, including sharing and adaptation, by all individuals provided that the owners are acknowledged in any use or publication. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Info and download page on LifeWatch Italy Data Portal https://data.lifewatchitaly.eu/handle/123456789/129786 DOI https://doi.org/10.48372/40RD-G492 The dataset contains information at a global level. -180 180 90 -90 2011-10-01 2020-09-15 http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#keyword http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/21673 http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#keyword https://kos.lifewatch.eu/thesauri/sandybeachthes/c_405860a8 http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#keyword http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/22313 http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#keyword http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_4091f5e2 http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#keyword http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1375281890023 Eftychia Tzafesta LifeWatch ERIC Data Scientist eftychia.tzafesta@lifewatch.eu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3330-2163 This dataset was generated through a systematic literature review conducted on Web of Science between September 2023 and May 2024. We searched for peer-reviewed studies comparing species detections using both eDNA metabarcoding and traditional morphological methods in aquatic macroorganisms. Boolean combinations of terms including eDNA, metabarcoding, morphological identification, temperature, UV, fragment size, filter, and salinity were used. From over 1000 records screened, 22 studies met all inclusion criteria. For each selected study, we extracted data on species detected by both methods, geographic coordinates, ecosystem type, filter pore size, DNA fragment length, and available environmental variables. When information on water temperature remained unavailable, we sourced the data from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (Merchant et al., 2019; Merchant and Embury, 2020), and the ERA5-Land dataset of the Copernicus Climate Data Store (Munoz Sabater, 2019) for marine and freshwater environments, respectively. Additionally, we obtained salinity data from the NOAA CoastalWatch Data Portal when it was not provided in the studies. To analyse DNA-damage potential from UV exposure, we used the Clear-sky DNA-damage UV dose dataset provided by the Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service (TEMIS) (Van Geffen et al., 2017).