213 Views

Organized Oral Session

Session: Changing the focus of eDNA – pushing beyond species presence/absence applications to unlock the trove of ecological information in environmental nucleic acids

OOS 29-4 - Beyond presence/absence: Analysis of environmental microsatellite DNA (emDNA) to infer population abundance - a case study in Atlantic salmon

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

2:15 PM – 2:30 PM EDT

Location: 520C

Presenting Author(s)

BN

Bryan D. Neff

Western University, Canada

Co-author(s)

BN

Bryan D. Neff

Western University, Canada
DH

Daniel D. Heath, PhD

Professor
Department of Integrative Biology, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada, Canada
NL

Nabeelah Lulat

University of Windsor
SM

Simone Miklosi

Western University
SG

Shawn R. Garner

Western University

Background/Question/Methods
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging conservation and management tool with considerable potential for aquatic habitats. Current eDNA approaches largely focus on mitochondrial genes, with an emphasis on determining the presence or absence of a species in a particular habitat. Nuclear genes, and microsatellites in particular, have the potential to provide increased population-level information from eDNA. Despite this potential, the reliability, consistency and analysis of microsatellite genetic information from water samples remains poorly understood. Our research combines modelling, controlled laboratory experiments and field surveys with Atlantic salmon to address these questions and contribute to the development of this tool.

Results/Conclusions
Both field and laboratory studies support the potential to obtain robust microsatellite information from eDNA samples. Modelling supports the capacity of these data to contribute to inferences about population size and to be a useful population monitoring tool.