2.5 Available freshwater bivalves data for France
In order to compare the data collected with freshwater bivalves eDNA
metabarcoding, data provided by INPN were used. INPN (Inventaire
national du Patrimoine naturel, National Inventory of the NAtural
Heritage) is a system implemented to ensure in a standardized way the
restitution of synthetic data needed for the expertise, the development
of conservation strategies and the dissemination of information and
national and international reports relatied to the French natural
heritage (plant and animal species, natural habitats and geological
heritage, seehttps://inpn.mnhn.fr/accueil/presentation-inpn?lg=en,
and Gargominy, Léonard, Prié and Cucherat, 2016). The information comes
from many national programs and data provided by various partners. INPN
ensure the validation of this data on three levels (1) conformity, e.g.
the species is referenced in the French taxonomic register (Gargominy et
al., 2019) and the observation is situated in France; (2) consistency,
e.g. observation is not dated after the integration of the data; (3)
scientific validation, e.g. marine species is not recorded on land.
INPN thus includes data provided in the literature (grey as well as
academic), in museum collection as well as observations through various
programs. About 32 900 freshwater bivalve data are available on the INPN
database in 2020. For focused species of conservation concern, the Giant
Freshwater Pearl Mussel Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793),
the Depressed River Mussel Pseudanodonta complanata (Rossmässler,
1835), the Nut Orb Mussel Sphaerium rivicola (Lamarck, 1818) and
the Witham Orb Mussel S. solidum (Normand, 1844), a distinction
was made between ancient data (i.e. here data collected before the year
2000) and recent ones. Shell-only data were considered as ancient data.