Airborne environmental DNA captures terrestrial vertebrate diversity in nature

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt

The current biodiversity and climate crises highlight the need for efficient tools to monitor terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we provide evidence for the use of airborne eDNA analyses as a novel method for detecting terrestrial vertebrate communities in nature. Metabarcoding of 143 airborne eDNA samples collected during 3 days in a mixed forest in Denmark yielded 64 bird, mammal, fish and amphibian taxa, of which the detected 57 ‘wild’ taxa represent over a quarter of the around 210 terrestrial vertebrates that occur in the overall area. We provide evidence for the spatial movement and temporal patterns of airborne eDNA and for the influence of weather conditions on vertebrate detections. This study demonstrates airborne eDNA for high-resolution biomonitoring of vertebrates in terrestrial systems and elucidates its potential to guide global nature management and conservation efforts in the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummere13840
TidsskriftMolecular Ecology Resources
Vol/bind24
Udgave nummer1
Antal sider20
ISSN1755-098X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 27 jul. 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We thank Jacob Agerbo Rasmussen for assistance with the design and printing of 3D housings for the air samplers, Sarah S. T. Mak for discussions regarding laboratory protocols, Tina Brand, Pernille Selmer Olsen and Lasse Vinner (Globe Institute Molecular Biology Labs and GeoGenetics Sequencing Core) for support, infrastructure, discussions and sequencing. We thank Anders Møller, Kattrup Gods, for permission to filter air in the estate's forest. This work was primarily supported by a VILLUM FONDEN Experiment grant awarded to K.B. and M.T.O. (00028049). Furthermore, it was supported by a Carlsberg Foundation Semper Ardens Accelerate Fellowship awarded to K.B. (CF21‐0411). C.L. was further supported by a research grant (VIL41390) from VILLUM FONDEN. Animal silhouettes used in figures were obtained from the Integration and Application Network ( https://ian.umces.edu/media‐library/ ). The authors acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and READY website ( https://www.ready.noaa.gov ) used in this publication and infrastructure support from ACTRIS‐DK.

Publisher Copyright:
Molecular Ecology Resources© 2023 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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