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Life in a drop : sampling environmental DNA for marine fishery management and ecosystem monitoring

Gilbey, J; Carvalho, G; Castilho, R; Coscia, I; Coulson, MW; Dahle, G; Derycke, S; Francisco, SM; …; Volckaert, FAM

Authors

J Gilbey

G Carvalho

R Castilho

I Coscia

MW Coulson

G Dahle

S Derycke

SM Francisco

FAM Volckaert



Abstract

Science-based management of marine fisheries and effective ecosystem monitoring both require the analysis of large amounts of often complex and difficult to collect information. Legislation also increasingly requires the attainment of good environmental status, which again demands collection of data to enable efficient monitoring and management of biodiversity. Such data is traditionally obtained as a result of research surveys through the capture and/or visual identification of organisms. Recent years have seen significant advances in the utilisation of environmental DNA (eDNA) in the marine environment in order to develop alternative cost-effective ways to gather relevant data. Such approaches attempt to identify and/or quantify the species present at a location through the detection of extra-organismal DNA in the environment. These new eDNA based approaches have the potential to revolutionise data collection in the marine environment using non-invasive sampling methods and providing snapshots of biodiversity beyond the capacity of traditional sampling. Here we present a non-technical summary of different approaches in the field of eDNA, and emphasise the broad application of this approach, with value for the governance and management of marine aquatic ecosystems. The review focuses on identifying those tools which are now readily applicable and those which show promise but are currently in development and require further validations. The aim is to provide an understanding of techniques and concepts that can be used by managers without genetic or genomic expertise when consulting with specialists to perform joint evaluations of the utility of the approaches.

Citation

Gilbey, J., Carvalho, G., Castilho, R., Coscia, I., Coulson, M., Dahle, G., …Volckaert, F. (2021). Life in a drop : sampling environmental DNA for marine fishery management and ecosystem monitoring. Marine Policy, 124, 104331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104331

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 22, 2020
Online Publication Date Dec 5, 2020
Publication Date Feb 1, 2021
Deposit Date Jan 11, 2021
Publicly Available Date Jun 5, 2022
Journal Marine Policy
Print ISSN 0308-597X
Publisher Elsevier
Volume 124
Pages 104331
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104331
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104331
Related Public URLs http://www.journals.elsevier.com/marine-policy/

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