Annual time-series analysis of aqueous eDNA reveals ecologically relevant dynamics of lake ecosystem biodiversity

Iliana Bista (), Gary R. Carvalho, Kerry Walsh, Mathew Seymour, Mehrdad Hajibabaei, Delphine Lallias, Martin Christmas and Simon Creer ()
Additional contact information
Iliana Bista: Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University
Gary R. Carvalho: Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University
Kerry Walsh: Environment Agency, Horizon House
Mathew Seymour: Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University
Mehrdad Hajibabaei: University of Guelph
Delphine Lallias: GABI, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay
Martin Christmas: Environment Agency, Horizon House
Simon Creer: Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in biodiversity assessments offers a step-change in sensitivity, throughput and simultaneous measures of ecosystem diversity and function. There remains, however, a need to examine eDNA persistence in the wild through simultaneous temporal measures of eDNA and biota. Here, we use metabarcoding of two markers of different lengths, derived from an annual time series of aqueous lake eDNA to examine temporal shifts in ecosystem biodiversity and in an ecologically important group of macroinvertebrates (Diptera: Chironomidae). The analyses allow different levels of detection and validation of taxon richness and community composition (β-diversity) through time, with shorter eDNA fragments dominating the eDNA community. Comparisons between eDNA, community DNA, taxonomy and UK species abundance data further show significant relationships between diversity estimates derived across the disparate methodologies. Our results reveal the temporal dynamics of eDNA and validate the utility of eDNA metabarcoding for tracking seasonal diversity at the ecosystem scale.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14087 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14087

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14087

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().