Abstract
The ability to detect founding populations of invasive species or rare species with low number of individuals is important for aquatic ecosystem management. Traditional approaches use historical data, knowledge of the species’ ecology and time-consuming surveys. Within the past decade, environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a powerful additional tracking tool. While much work has been done with animals, comparatively very little has been done with aquatic plants. Here we investigated the transportation and seasonal changes in eDNA concentrations for an invasive aquatic species, Elodea canadensis, in Norway. A specific probe assay was developed using chloroplast DNA to study the fate of the targeted eDNA through space and time. The spatial study used a known source of Elodea canadensis within Lake Nordbytjern 400 m away from the lake outlet flowing into the stream Tveia. The rate of disappearance of E. canadensis eDNA was an order of magnitude loss over about 230 m in the lake and 1550 m in the stream. The time series study was performed monthly from May to October in lake Steinsfjorden harbouring E. canadensis, showing that eDNA concentrations varied by up to three orders of magnitude, peaking during fall. In both studies, the presence of suspended clay or turbidity for some samples did not hamper eDNA analysis. This study shows how efficient eDNA tools may be for tracking aquatic plants in the environment and provides key spatial and temporal information on the fate of eDNA.
Highlights
The detection of invasive species is often challenging during the initial settlement phase due to low numbers of founding individuals [1, 2]
Elodea canadensis Environmental DNA (eDNA) was detected in the sample from the source lake, with known presence of the aquatic plant, yielding almost 10 fg/mL
In this study we have developed a specific probe assay for eDNA detection of the aquatic plant E. canadensis and used it to conduct a spatial transect field study as well as a time series field study
Summary
The detection of invasive species is often challenging during the initial settlement phase due to low numbers of founding individuals [1, 2]. Aquatic plant eDNA been shown to be or more sensitive than traditional surveying methods [6, 7]. Detection of aquatic plant eDNA has been scarce in comparison [31]. In the wild it was first demonstrated for Egeria densa and Hydrilla verticillata in small Japanese ponds (83–6000 m2) where the presence of the species was visually confirmed and compared to past distribution records [32, 33]. To the best of our knowledge, no temporal or spatial studies have yet been conducted in the wild for studying potential seasonal variations and transportation of aquatic plants eDNA
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