EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
5/25/2021 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM | MODELLING ENVIRONMENTAL DNA TRANSPORT AND DECAY ALLOWS UPSCALING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF BIODIVERSITY IN RIVERINE ECOSYSTEMS | Virtual Platform
MODELLING ENVIRONMENTAL DNA TRANSPORT AND DECAY ALLOWS UPSCALING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF BIODIVERSITY IN RIVERINE ECOSYSTEMS
The current alarming declines of global biodiversity, and freshwater biodiversity in particular, call for efficient biomonitoring at fine spatiotemporal scales, such that conservation measures be grounded upon accurate biodiversity data. Here, we show that combining environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from stream water samples with eDITH, a model for eDNA transport and decay in rivers based on hydrological first principles, allows upscaling biodiversity estimates at an unprecedented spatial resolution. The eDITH model decouples the diverse upstream contributions to the eDNA data, enabling the reconstruction of patterns of spatial distributions of taxa.
We tested eDITH on eDNA data for aquatic insects belonging to orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera collected across a 740-km2 Swiss prealpine basin, obtaining a space-filling biodiversity prediction at a grain size resolution of 1-km long stream sections. The model’s accuracy in matching direct observations of aquatic insects’ local occurrence ranged between 57–100%. Our results demonstrate how eDNA can be used for large-scale and high-resolution biodiversity assessments in rivers with minimal prior knowledge of the system. Our approach allows identification of biodiversity hotspots that could be otherwise overlooked, enabling implementation of focused conservation strategies.
- Models
- Transport
- Stream
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Presenters/Authors
Luca Carraro
(), University of Zurich, Switzerland, luca.carraro@eawag.ch;
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Elvira Mächler
(), Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, elvira.maechler@eawag.ch;
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Remo Wüthrich
(), Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, remo.wuethrich@gutwasser.ch;
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Florian Altermatt
(), Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, florian.altermatt@eawag.ch;
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