Applications on Environmental DNA in Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2024 | Viewed by 543

Special Issue Editors

Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: taxonomy; zoogeography; diversity conservation of freshwater fishes; cavefishes; evolution in extreme environments
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Guest Editor
Natural Resource and Environment Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Beijing 100141, China
Interests: freshwater fish; conservation; freshwater ecosystem; eDNA

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Diversity journal is launching a Special Issue dedicated to using eDNA as a tool for aquatic ecology and biodiversity biomonitoring. Environmental DNA technology is gradually maturing and is currently widely used in aquatic ecosystem monitoring and biodiversity surveys worldwide, while research on biodiversity, species conservation, distribution patterns, and ecosystems based on environmental DNA survey results has also been booming.

In this context, this Special Issue focuses on the latest progress of environmental DNA in the aquatic ecology and biodiversity research fields. We will gather the latest research achievements of outstanding scientists from different regions around the world, concentrate on showing the frontier trends of environmental DNA development, and further promote the application of environmental DNA in scientific research and practical protection management.

Dr. Yahui Zhao
Dr. Yingchun Xing
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • environmental DNA
  • eDNA
  • biomonitoring
  • fish
  • conservation
  • biodiversity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 2440 KiB  
Article
Biodiversity Assessment of a Mississippi River Backwater Complex Using eDNA Metabarcoding
by Eric J. Ludwig, Veronica M. Lee, Leah K. Berkman, Aaron D. Geheber and David D. Duvernell
Diversity 2024, 16(8), 495; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16080495 - 14 Aug 2024
Viewed by 149
Abstract
The backwater lowland habitats of large rivers, like the Mississippi River in North America, present complex and often inaccessible environments for traditional capture-based fish biodiversity sampling. Our knowledge of the assemblages of the fishes that occupy such habitats is often incomplete, and this [...] Read more.
The backwater lowland habitats of large rivers, like the Mississippi River in North America, present complex and often inaccessible environments for traditional capture-based fish biodiversity sampling. Our knowledge of the assemblages of the fishes that occupy such habitats is often incomplete, and this can compromise management efforts. We employed environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding methods to sample a Mississippi River bottom wetland system to assess the ichthyofaunal diversity and the assemblage structure across habitat types, and we compared our results with capture-based survey records for the same habitats. We collected water samples in the spring and fall of 2022 from slough, ditch, shallow lake, and bayou habitats that varied in depth, vegetation, seasonal variability, and connectivity to the Mississippi River channel. We detected a diverse array of fish species that included 51 taxa. Nearly all the species previously documented in the habitats were detected using eDNA metabarcoding, and we increased the number of documented species by more than a third. Most of the species were ubiquitous across the range of habitats, but there was also a substantial assemblage structure, with some species exhibiting clear habitat specificity. Fall sampling was limited to the deeper bayou habitats where seasonal variation between the spring and fall was minimal. eDNA metabarcode sampling was demonstrated to be effective at detecting invasive species as well as uncommon species, which included several species of conservation concern. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications on Environmental DNA in Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity)
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