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.
Highlights
The use of environmental DNA in biodiversity assessments offers a step-change in sensitivity, throughput and simultaneous measures of ecosystem diversity and function
Previous work with environmental DNA (eDNA) of aquatic invertebrates is dominated by PCR-based approaches, which are limited in assessing biodiversity[11,12,13]
We show that freshwater lake eDNA analyses capture seasonally coherent biodiversity patterns across the tree of life and that shorter fragments of eDNA dominate natural ecosystems
Summary
The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in biodiversity assessments offers a step-change in sensitivity, throughput and simultaneous measures of ecosystem diversity and function. 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). Persistence of eDNA is the time that eDNA remains detectable (for example, in the water) after removal or loss of the organism from the environment, which influences the timeframe for biodiversity assessment[6]. Investigating the temporal relationship between community DNA25 and eDNA is vital, since accurate (extant) biodiversity assessment requires detection of contemporary, and ecologically relevant, biodiversity. Persistence of short eDNA fragments, in artificial environments, was found to vary between days to weeks after removal of the study organisms, depending upon biotic and abiotic factors[27]
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