Abstract
AbstractBackgroundThousands of bulk arthropod samples are collected globally every year for monitoring programs, conservation efforts, and ecosystem assessments. The taxonomic contents of these samples can be assessed either morphologically or molecularly using DNA metabarcoding coupled with high‐throughput sequencing, the latter of which has gained popularity in recent years. In a related field, only vertebrateingesting invertebrates, such as carrion flies and blood‐feeding leeches, are targeted for collection, and metabarcoding is carried out on the vertebrate DNA in their gut contents to provide information on vertebrate diversity (invertebrate‐derived DNA, iDNA).AimsHere, we show that the two approaches can be combined, that is, that vertebrate DNA can be detected through metabarcoding of bulk arthropod samples. Materials and Methods: Two metabarcoding primer sets were used to PCR amplify mammal and vertebrate DNA in DNA extracted from bulk arthropod samples collected with pitfall and Malaise traps in tropical forests in Brazil and Tanzania.ResultsIn total, 32 vertebrate taxa were detected representing mammals, amphibians, and birds. Detected taxa were within, or close to, their known geographical distributions.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that with a relatively small additional investment, information on vertebrate diversity can be obtained from bulk arthropod samples. This is of particular interest in projects where bulk arthropod samples are collected and extracted with the aim to use metabarcoding to assess arthropod taxa. In such studies, the additional information on vertebrates can further inform ecological assessments and monitoring programs and function as a supplement to traditional survey methods of vertebrates.
Highlights
Fauna monitoring can be used to assess ecosystem health; detect invasive, rare, and indicator species; define areas for conservation priority settings; and inform biodiversity and ecosystem manage‐ ment decisions (Hajibabaei et al, 2011; Hilty & Merenlender, 2000; Ji et al, 2013; Liu, Guo, Zhong, & Shi, 2018)
Two metabarcoding primer sets were used to PCR amplify mam‐ mal and vertebrate DNA in the DNA extracted from the bulk arthropod samples
Information regarding trap type (Malaise or pitfall) and number of vertebrate detections, metabarcoding primer set (v: 12S vertebrate, Riaz et al, 2011; or m: 16S mammal, Taylor, 1996), whether the taxa were observed during sample collection, if its known geographical distribution falls within the collection site and the IUCN status, least concern (LC) or vulnerable (VU) of the taxa are shown
Summary
Fauna monitoring can be used to assess ecosystem health; detect invasive, rare, and indicator species; define areas for conservation priority settings; and inform biodiversity and ecosystem manage‐ ment decisions (Hajibabaei et al, 2011; Hilty & Merenlender, 2000; Ji et al, 2013; Liu, Guo, Zhong, & Shi, 2018). Since the field of iDNA originated, targeted collection followed by iDNA analyses of gut contents has been carried out on different in‐ vertebrate taxa such as leeches (Drinkwater et al, 2019; Pérez‐Flores, Rueda‐Calderon, Kvist, Siddall, & Oceguera‐Figueroa, 2016; Schnell et al, 2018; Weiskopf et al, 2018), sand flies (Kocher, De Thoisy, et al, 2017), blow and flesh flies (Calvignac‐Spencer et al, 2013; Hoffmann et al, 2018; Lee, Gan, Clements, & Wilson, 2016; Lee, Sing, & Wilson, 2015; Rodgers et al, 2017; Schubert et al, 2015), mos‐ quitoes (Kocher, De Thoisy, et al, 2017), ticks (Gariepy et al, 2012), marine copepods (Meekan et al, 2017), and shrimps (Siegenthaler et al, 2019) This has offered a new and promising tool to complement traditional vertebrate monitoring methods, something of great value in the ongoing biodiversity monitoring efforts (Bohmann et al, 2013).
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