Abstract
Our study focuses on methodological comparison of plankton community composition in relation to ecological monitoring and assessment with data sampling. Recently, along with the advancement of monitoring techniques, metabarcoding has been widely used in the context of environmental DNA (eDNA). We examine the applicability of eDNA metabarcoding for effective monitoring and assessment of community composition, compared with conventional observation using microscopic identification in a coastal ecosystem, Gwangynag Bay in South Korea. Our analysis is based primarily on two surveys at a total of 15 study sites in early and late summer (June and September) of the year 2018. The results of our study demonstrate the similarity and dissimilarity of biological communities in composition, richness and diversity between eDNA metabarcoding and conventional microscopic identification. It is found that, overall, eDNA metabarcoding appears to provide a wider variety of species composition, while conventional microscopic identification depicts more distinct plankton communities in sites. Finally, we suggest that eDNA metabarcoding is a practically useful method and can be potentially considered as a valuable alternative for biological monitoring and diversity assessments.
Highlights
Environmental DNA is defined as genetic material indirectly obtained from a wide variety of environmental samples, rather than directly sampled from macro- and micro-organisms [1]
In the sense that the Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is highly appealing for finding cryptic aquatic species in biological monitoring and assessment, our study focuses on testing the potential of eDNA
Albeit comparing only with the identified species, we found that the number of species was higher in the eDNA samples than the Conventional microscopic identification (CMI)
Summary
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is defined as genetic material indirectly obtained from a wide variety of environmental samples (e.g., air, water, and soil), rather than directly sampled from macro- and micro-organisms [1]. The rapid advancement of molecular technology, such as amplification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), facilitates applications of DNA-based approaches that highlight the capacity of analysis to detect a variety of macro- and micro-organisms within the same sample. DNA-based identification has been regarded as efficient alternatives in terms of both time and cost in ecological research [8,9]. This analytical technique can be applied either to a single species/taxon using specific primers or to multiple species/taxa using generic primers in accordance with research objectives
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