Estuarine molecular bycatch as a landscape-wide biomonitoring tool

Mariani, S; Harper, LR; Collins, RA; Baillie, C; Wangensteen, OS; McDevitt, A; Heddell-Cowie, M; Genner, MJ

Abstract

Environmental DNA analysis is rapidly transforming biodiversity monitoring and bolstering conservation applications worldwide. This approach has been assisted by the development of metabarcoding PCR primers that are suited for detection of a wide range of taxa. However, little effort has gone into exploring the value of the non-target DNA sequences that are generated in every survey, but subsequently discarded. Here we demonstrate that fish-targeted markers widely employed in aquatic biomonitoring can also detect birds and mammals present in the surrounding habitats. We showcase this feature in three temperate estuaries over multiple seasons, where dozens of bird and mammal species offer valuable insights into spatial and temporal faunal variation. Our results indicate that existing metabarcode sequence data sets are suitable for mining and exploration of this ‘molecular by-catch’, and that future eDNA-based surveys can be designed to accommodate this enhanced property of this widely applicable tool.

Citation

Mariani, S., Harper, L., Collins, R., Baillie, C., Wangensteen, O., McDevitt, A., …Genner, M. (2021). Estuarine molecular bycatch as a landscape-wide biomonitoring tool. Biological Conservation, 261, 109287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109287

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 3, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Aug 13, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Aug 25, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 13, 2022
• Journal: Biological Conservation
• Print ISSN: 0006-3207
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 261
• Pages: 109287
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109287
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109287
• Related Public URLs: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation/
• Additional Information: Access Information : This is the peer-reviewed and published article based upon an earlier, non-peer-reviewed pre-print paper which can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.10.426097; Projects : SeaDNA - Assessing marine biodiversity and structure using environmental DNA: from groundtruthing to food web structure and stability;NE/N005759/1;NE/N005937/1