EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021

(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)

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5/27/2021  |   2:00 PM - 3:30 PM   |  Linking emerging insect and eDNA biodiversity to metal concentrations in a small southern Appalachian stream   |  Virtual Platform

Linking emerging insect and eDNA biodiversity to metal concentrations in a small southern Appalachian stream

Quantifying aquatic insect biodiversity is essential to aid our understanding of ecosystem processes and implementing adequate conservation strategies. Both field techniques and molecular methods for identifying species have their strengths in quantifying biodiversity. We use both techniques to assess biodiversity in a stream in southwest Virginia, along with analyzing levels of several metals at our sites. Soil values for cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury and lead fall within regulatory limits. Emergence traps were used to collect organisms that emerged from the stream as reproducing adults over a four-week period. Environmental samples (e.g., water, soil) were also collected in order to extract and sequence the eDNA found in the samples. Emerging aquatic insect abundance, richness, and diversity increase over time, as expected. More family richness was detected using eDNA than traditional field sampling; however, many families detected using field techniques were not recovered using eDNA, furthering support that both protocols are necessary for fully documenting biodiversity. Furthermore, we did not have much success in identifying eDNA sequences to species with high sequence similarity, suggesting that invertebrate biodiversity of southwest VA is not well-documented.

  • Biodiversity
  • Monitoring
  • Aquatic–terrestrial biodiversity

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Presenters/Authors

Tara Pelletier (), Radford University, tpelletier@radford.edu;


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Drew Reavis (), Radford University, dreavis1@radford.edu;


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Kristina Stefaniak (), Radford University, kroth1@radford.edu;


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Jamie Lau (), Radford University, jlau@radford.edu;


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