We need high-resolution temporal monitoring of biodiversity. Why ? Because the world is rapidly changing. Human activities and climate change impact marine ecosystems at an alarming rate. Monitoring earth’s physical environment benefits from fully functional remote sensing and automated measurement systems. However, monitoring biodiversity (and marine biodiversity in particular) is another story. It is logistically constraining and limited in depth. Traditional underwater monitoring methods (diving, video) can hardly be used at high frequency on large spatial scales.
Environmental DNA is an innovative solution for long-term monitoring.
Organisms release DNA through skin, feces, and secretions, leaving genetic imprints in the environment, which can be retrieved using environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. For marine organisms, eDNA can be easily retrieved by filtering sea water. This method has several advantages :
- It is non-invasive
- It is time-saving
- It is applicable to all habitats
- It provides transparent and reliable indicators of environmental conditions and sustainability
- It offers the ability to scan natural habitats with a near-complete taxonomic coverage.
eDNA metabarcoding is more effective and cost-efficient than traditional survey methods, and allows standardization in biodiversity monitoring.
It also helps detect and monitor rare species that support essential ecosystem functions under threat from global changes. eDNA metabarcoding is the best monitoring method for setting up a global high temporal resolution program. It is the best method to understand the long-term impact of global changes on coastal marine biodiversity.
Setting up a pioneer eDNA monitoring from the Arctic to Antarctica in the long term
The eDNA hindsight project aims to build a global network of partners to address the effect of climate change on marine communities by providing them with eDNA equipment and training in field sampling.
This project is led by the research group of Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution at ETH Zürich (https://ele.ethz.ch/the-group.html) which has a world-class expertise on global biodiversity gradient.
We will monitor sites across a wide latitudinal range, including Marine Protected Areas, Key Biodiversity Area, IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, and coral reefs. Our goal is to generate standardized high-quality biodiversity data to identify trends and inform stakeholders.
All data collected during the project will be shared among participants and be made available online at the end of the project using the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL) platform www.envidat.ch.
A biobank to store genetic snapshots of ecosystems
Using eDNA metabarcoding has the advantage of storing entire ecosystem fingerprints. The project includes the creation of a collaborative biobank to store physical eDNA samples for long-term snapshots of taxonomic, functional and genetic compositions.
eDNA metabarcoding is a technology in constant evolution. Storing samples will allow to analyze in the future with better technology and knowledge. It is like how scientists collect and generate collections of ice cores from glaciers and store them for future time-series analysis. This biobank is the first of its kind and this project paves the way to a new era of biodiversity monitoring.
