Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient
Despite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and ta...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2016-09-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/2444.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797417818704052224 |
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| author | Ryan P. Kelly James L. O’Donnell Natalie C. Lowell Andrew O. Shelton Jameal F. Samhouri Shannon M. Hennessey Blake E. Feist Gregory D. Williams |
| author_facet | Ryan P. Kelly James L. O’Donnell Natalie C. Lowell Andrew O. Shelton Jameal F. Samhouri Shannon M. Hennessey Blake E. Feist Gregory D. Williams |
| author_sort | Ryan P. Kelly |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for quantifying associations between human land use and changes in an adjacent ecosystem. We analyze metazoan eDNA sequences from water sampled in nearshore marine eelgrass communities and assess the relationship between these ecological communities and the degree of urbanization in the surrounding watershed. Counter to conventional wisdom, we find strongly increasing richness and decreasing beta diversity with greater urbanization, and similar trends in the diversity of life histories with urbanization. We also find evidence that urbanization influences nearshore communities at local (hundreds of meters) rather than regional (tens of km) scales. Given that different survey methods sample different components of an ecosystem, we then discuss the advantages of eDNA—which we use here to detect hundreds of taxa simultaneously—as a complement to traditional ecological sampling, particularly in the context of broad ecological assessments where exhaustive manual sampling is impractical. Genetic data are a powerful means of uncovering human-ecosystem interactions that might otherwise remain hidden; nevertheless, no sampling method reveals the whole of a biological community. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:24:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c159c84137364143a4d25a10a7eeb2fc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:24:11Z |
| publishDate | 2016-09-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-c159c84137364143a4d25a10a7eeb2fc2023-12-03T11:28:54ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592016-09-014e244410.7717/peerj.2444Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradientRyan P. Kelly0James L. O’Donnell1Natalie C. Lowell2Andrew O. Shelton3Jameal F. Samhouri4Shannon M. Hennessey5Blake E. Feist6Gregory D. Williams7School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaSchool of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaSchool of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaNorthwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaNorthwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States of AmericaNorthwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaNorthwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaDespite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for quantifying associations between human land use and changes in an adjacent ecosystem. We analyze metazoan eDNA sequences from water sampled in nearshore marine eelgrass communities and assess the relationship between these ecological communities and the degree of urbanization in the surrounding watershed. Counter to conventional wisdom, we find strongly increasing richness and decreasing beta diversity with greater urbanization, and similar trends in the diversity of life histories with urbanization. We also find evidence that urbanization influences nearshore communities at local (hundreds of meters) rather than regional (tens of km) scales. Given that different survey methods sample different components of an ecosystem, we then discuss the advantages of eDNA—which we use here to detect hundreds of taxa simultaneously—as a complement to traditional ecological sampling, particularly in the context of broad ecological assessments where exhaustive manual sampling is impractical. Genetic data are a powerful means of uncovering human-ecosystem interactions that might otherwise remain hidden; nevertheless, no sampling method reveals the whole of a biological community.https://peerj.com/articles/2444.pdfMetagenomicsEstuarineMetabarcodingMarineMolecular ecologyEnvironmental impact assessment |
| spellingShingle | Ryan P. Kelly James L. O’Donnell Natalie C. Lowell Andrew O. Shelton Jameal F. Samhouri Shannon M. Hennessey Blake E. Feist Gregory D. Williams Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient PeerJ Metagenomics Estuarine Metabarcoding Marine Molecular ecology Environmental impact assessment |
| title | Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| title_full | Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| title_fullStr | Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| title_short | Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| title_sort | genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient |
| topic | Metagenomics Estuarine Metabarcoding Marine Molecular ecology Environmental impact assessment |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/2444.pdf |
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