Fine-tuning biodiversity assessments: A framework to pair eDNA metabarcoding and morphological approaches
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Accurate quantification of biodiversity can be demanding and expensive. Although environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding can facilitate biodiversity assessments through non-invasive, cost-efficient and rapid surveys, the approach struggles to outperform traditional morphological approaches in providing reliable quantitative estimates for surveyed species (e.g. abundance and biomass). We present an integrated methodology for improving biodiversity surveys that pairs eDNA metabarcoding with morphological data, following a series of taxonomic and geographical filters. We demonstrate its power by applying it to a new spatiotemporal dataset generated on an Iberian-wide distributed aquatic mesocosm infrastructure that spans a wide biogeographical gradient. By building upon the strengths that these two approaches offer, our framework improved taxonomic resolution for 30% of the taxa and enabled species’ traits (e.g. body size) and abundance to be assigned to 85% of the taxa in hybrid datasets. These results indicate that eDNA-based assessments can complement, but not always replace, conventional approaches. Integrating conventional and modern eDNA metabarcoding approaches, already available in the ecologist's toolbox, will greatly enhance biodiversity assessments.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Methods in Ecology and Evolution |
| Vol/bind | 12 |
| Udgave nummer | 12 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 2397-2409 |
| Antal sider | 13 |
| ISSN | 2041-210X |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2021 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) through the scientific projects TrophicResponses—Trophic responses to macroecological gradients (PTDC/BIA‐BIC/0352/2014), and StateShifts—Predicting state shifts in energetic food webs under climate change (PTDC/AAG‐MAA/3764/2014). This work was also funded by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Programme and National Funds through FCT under the project number POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐007688 and PTDC/CTA‐AMB/30793/2017 (AdaptAlentejo—Predicting ecosystem‐level responses to climate change). The Iberian Pond network has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Nos 731065 (AQUACOSM) and 871081 (AQUACOSM‐plus). C.L.P. acknowledges support by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) through PhD studentship (SFRH/BD/102020/2014). Pedro Raposeiro, Katarzyna Sroczynska, Andreu Castillo‐Escrivá, Pedro Faísca, Sara Ribeiro and Joana Vilaverde are thanked for contributing to biodiversity surveys and taxa morphological‐based identification.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society
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