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mudmossmolly:
A northern dusky salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) posing for us during a salamander survey in a West Virginia stream. We took these photos on the last day of my internship in the genomics lab, where I was studying eDNA, or environmental DNA, a new science that has only just begun to truly take hold in conservation in the last decade!
eDNA can be extracted from many sources, including soil, water (even snow!), and even scat (poop!).
Why do we use eDNA? In this case, some species of aquatic (water-dwelling) animals are extremely cryptic, or hard to find.
By taking a sample of water, soil, etc. and matching eDNA within it to a known species, we can detect and confirm presence of that species without ever seeing the animal.
Imagine a river we think would make a good habitat for a species of concern, but murky conditions, pollution, traffic, protections, etc. make it too dangerous or inaccessible to do a full survey. We might use eDNA to confirm the presence of that species with water alone! It’s a very cool science.
We can also use eDNA from scat to determine the diet of an animal.
eDNA is also a noninvasive (meaning we don’t directly handle or disturb the animal) way of surveying.
In my lab, we were doing experiments that were actually focused on determining how accurate eDNA identification is for specific species of salamanders, in order to hopefully defend using it for future population studies.
I’m super grateful I got to learn so much about eDNA and genomics in general this summer!
Here is a bit more reading on it if you’re interested!
And here is another project, including a guide on how to collect it, that seems to be using volunteer efforts to compile local eDNA data—very cool!
🌿🍄Follow My Field Journal!🍄🌿
mudmossmolly:
A northern dusky salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) posing for us during a salamander survey in a West Virginia stream. We took these photos on the last day of my internship in the genomics lab, where I was studying eDNA, or environmental DNA, a new science that has only just begun to truly take hold in conservation in the last decade!
eDNA can be extracted from many sources, including soil, water (even snow!), and even scat (poop!).
Why do we use eDNA? In this case, some species of aquatic (water-dwelling) animals are extremely cryptic, or hard to find.
By taking a sample of water, soil, etc. and matching eDNA within it to a known species, we can detect and confirm presence of that species without ever seeing the animal.
Imagine a river we think would make a good habitat for a species of concern, but murky conditions, pollution, traffic, protections, etc. make it too dangerous or inaccessible to do a full survey. We might use eDNA to confirm the presence of that species with water alone! It’s a very cool science.
We can also use eDNA from scat to determine the diet of an animal.
eDNA is also a noninvasive (meaning we don’t directly handle or disturb the animal) way of surveying.
In my lab, we were doing experiments that were actually focused on determining how accurate eDNA identification is for specific species of salamanders, in order to hopefully defend using it for future population studies.
I’m super grateful I got to learn so much about eDNA and genomics in general this summer!
Here is a bit more reading on it if you’re interested!
And here is another project, including a guide on how to collect it, that seems to be using volunteer efforts to compile local eDNA data—very cool!
🌿🍄Follow My Field Journal!🍄🌿
