Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species
Fast, reliable, and comprehensive biodiversity monitoring data are needed for environmental decision making and management. Recent work on fish environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding shows that aquatic diversity can be captured fast, reliably, and non-invasively at moderate costs. Because water in a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pensoft Publishers
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Metabarcoding and Metagenomics |
| Online Access: | https://mbmg.pensoft.net/article/66557/download/pdf/ |
| _version_ | 1818340064359350272 |
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| author | Till-Hendrik Macher Robin Schütz Jens Arle Arne J. Beermann Jan Koschorreck Florian Leese |
| author_facet | Till-Hendrik Macher Robin Schütz Jens Arle Arne J. Beermann Jan Koschorreck Florian Leese |
| author_sort | Till-Hendrik Macher |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Fast, reliable, and comprehensive biodiversity monitoring data are needed for environmental decision making and management. Recent work on fish environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding shows that aquatic diversity can be captured fast, reliably, and non-invasively at moderate costs. Because water in a catchment flows to the lowest point in the landscape, often a stream, it can collect traces of terrestrial species via surface or subsurface runoff along its way or when specimens come into direct contact with water (e.g., when drinking). Thus, fish eDNA metabarcoding data can provide information on fish but also on other vertebrate species that live in riparian habitats. This additional data may offer a much more comprehensive approach for assessing vertebrate diversity at no additional costs. Studies on how the sampling strategy affects species detection especially of stream-associated communities, however, are scarce. We therefore performed an analysis on the effects of biological replication on both fish as well as (semi-)terrestrial species detection. Along a 2 km stretch of the river Mulde (Germany), we collected 18 1-L water samples and analyzed the relation of detected species richness and quantity of biological replicates taken. We detected 58 vertebrate species, of which 25 were fish and lamprey, 18 mammals, and 15 birds, which account for 50%, 22.2%, and 7.4% of all native species to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. However, while increasing the number of biological replicates resulted in only 24.8% more detected fish and lamprey species, mammal, and bird species richness increased disproportionately by 68.9% and 77.3%, respectively. Contrary, PCR replicates showed little stochasticity. We thus emphasize to increase the number of biological replicates when the aim is to improve general species detections. This holds especially true when the focus is on rare aquatic taxa or on (semi-)terrestrial species, the so-called ‘bycatch’. As a clear advantage, this information can be obtained without any additional sampling or laboratory effort when the sampling strategy is chosen carefully. With the increased use of eDNA metabarcoding as part of national fish bioassessment and monitoring programs, the complimentary information provided on bycatch can be used for biodiversity monitoring and conservation on a much broader scale. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T15:36:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-73e3aee73b1149c986f90e310e89c303 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2534-9708 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T15:36:57Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | Pensoft Publishers |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Metabarcoding and Metagenomics |
| spelling | doaj.art-73e3aee73b1149c986f90e310e89c3032022-12-21T23:39:59ZengPensoft PublishersMetabarcoding and Metagenomics2534-97082021-07-015597110.3897/mbmg.5.6655766557Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate speciesTill-Hendrik Macher0Robin Schütz1Jens Arle2Arne J. Beermann3Jan Koschorreck4Florian Leese5University of Duisburg-EssenUniversity of Duisburg-EssenGerman Environment AgencyUniversity of Duisburg-EssenGerman Environment AgencyUniversity of Duisburg-EssenFast, reliable, and comprehensive biodiversity monitoring data are needed for environmental decision making and management. Recent work on fish environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding shows that aquatic diversity can be captured fast, reliably, and non-invasively at moderate costs. Because water in a catchment flows to the lowest point in the landscape, often a stream, it can collect traces of terrestrial species via surface or subsurface runoff along its way or when specimens come into direct contact with water (e.g., when drinking). Thus, fish eDNA metabarcoding data can provide information on fish but also on other vertebrate species that live in riparian habitats. This additional data may offer a much more comprehensive approach for assessing vertebrate diversity at no additional costs. Studies on how the sampling strategy affects species detection especially of stream-associated communities, however, are scarce. We therefore performed an analysis on the effects of biological replication on both fish as well as (semi-)terrestrial species detection. Along a 2 km stretch of the river Mulde (Germany), we collected 18 1-L water samples and analyzed the relation of detected species richness and quantity of biological replicates taken. We detected 58 vertebrate species, of which 25 were fish and lamprey, 18 mammals, and 15 birds, which account for 50%, 22.2%, and 7.4% of all native species to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. However, while increasing the number of biological replicates resulted in only 24.8% more detected fish and lamprey species, mammal, and bird species richness increased disproportionately by 68.9% and 77.3%, respectively. Contrary, PCR replicates showed little stochasticity. We thus emphasize to increase the number of biological replicates when the aim is to improve general species detections. This holds especially true when the focus is on rare aquatic taxa or on (semi-)terrestrial species, the so-called ‘bycatch’. As a clear advantage, this information can be obtained without any additional sampling or laboratory effort when the sampling strategy is chosen carefully. With the increased use of eDNA metabarcoding as part of national fish bioassessment and monitoring programs, the complimentary information provided on bycatch can be used for biodiversity monitoring and conservation on a much broader scale.https://mbmg.pensoft.net/article/66557/download/pdf/ |
| spellingShingle | Till-Hendrik Macher Robin Schütz Jens Arle Arne J. Beermann Jan Koschorreck Florian Leese Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species Metabarcoding and Metagenomics |
| title | Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| title_full | Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| title_fullStr | Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| title_short | Beyond fish eDNA metabarcoding: Field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| title_sort | beyond fish edna metabarcoding field replicates disproportionately improve the detection of stream associated vertebrate species |
| url | https://mbmg.pensoft.net/article/66557/download/pdf/ |
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