Brief description
Our aim was to compare water and sediment as sources of environmental DNA (eDNA) to better characterise Antarctic benthic communities and further develop practical approaches for DNA-based biodiversity assessment in remote environments. We used a cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) metabarcoding approach to characterise metazoan communities in 26 nearshore sites across 12 locations (including Ellis Fjord, Warriner Channel, Hawker Channel, Abatus Bay, Powell Point, Shirokaya Bay, and Weddell Arm) in the Vestfold Hills (East Antarctica) based on DNA extracted from either sediment cores or filtered seawater. We detected a total of 99 metazoan species from 12 phyla (including nematodes, cnidaria, echinoderms, chordates, arthropods, annelids, rotifers and molluscs) across 26 sites, with similar numbers of species detected in sediment and water eDNA samples. Please cite: Clarke LJ et al. (2021). Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems. PeerJ, DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12458 This work was completed as part of the Davis Aerodrome Project (DAP).Lineage
Progress Code: completedNotes
PurposeTo explore the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a metazoan biodiversity monitoring tool for Antarctic benthic ecosystems. Specifically: (1) Are there differences between sediment and water eDNA samples in terms of (a) number of reads assigned to metazoans, non-metazoans, and unclassified, (b) the number of metazoan species detected, (c) metazoan community composition? (2) Does eDNA-based species richness decrease with sediment depth, similar to trends observed in morphology-based studies? (3) Do environmental parameters (e.g., depth, distance to open ocean) influence community composition in water eDNA?
Data time period: 2019-11-13 to 2019-12-14
text: westlimit=77.88451; southlimit=-68.63487; eastlimit=78.39757; northlimit=-68.42426
text: uplimit=39; downlimit=3.6
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- global : AAS_5097_DAP_nearshore_benthic_DNA_metabarcoding