Development of an Environmental Metagenetics Approach for Monitoring Aquatic Biodiversity
Abstract
Our overall hypothesis is that genetic-based approaches are more accurate than existing methods in estimating species richness because they are more sensitive in the detection of rare species, whether invasive, threatened, or endangered. Our project was divided into five tasks. Task 1: Develop aquatic environmental DNA (eDNA) metagenetic assays for fishes and amphibians using ultrasequencing and validated for selected species with quantitative real time PCR (qPCR). Task 2: Test the assays on artificial aquatic mesocosm-scale assemblages of known species richness and diversity. Task 3: Test the assays in natural environments whose species richness has been thoroughly evaluated by traditional methods. Task 4: Apply the assays to natural environments with unknown species richness at different spatial scales, for comparison with traditional methods for estimating species richness. Task 5: Apply and compare alternative models for estimating species richness and biodiversity across a variety of aquatic systems. To accomplish these objectives, we developed and applied a new metagenetic toolbox of PCR primers based on multiple mitochondrial loci for the detection via sequencing of freshwater fish and amphibian species richness. By applying these tools to experimental and natural systems we demonstrated that eDNA methods entail much less sampling effort than traditional methods while providing more sensitive estimates of species presence. Therefore, eDNA yielded higher and likely more accurate estimates of species richness than traditional methods.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1073430
Entities
People
- Brett Olds
- Christopher Jerde
- David Lodge
- Gary A. Lamberti
- Kristy Deiner
- Mark Renshaw
- Michael E. Pfrender
- Nathan Evans
- Yiyuan Li
Organizations
- University of Notre Dame