Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities
Monitoring marine mammal populations is essential to permit assessment of population status as required by both national and international legislation. Traditional monitoring methods often rely on visual and/or acoustic detections from vessels and aircraft, but limitations including cost, errors in...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 2024-10-06T13:50:33+00:00 Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities Suarez-Bregua, Paula Álvarez-González, Miguel Parsons, Kim M. Rotllant, Josep Pierce, Graham J. Saavedra, Camilo Fundación Biodiversidad Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 journal-article 2022 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 2024-09-10T04:05:26Z Monitoring marine mammal populations is essential to permit assessment of population status as required by both national and international legislation. Traditional monitoring methods often rely on visual and/or acoustic detections from vessels and aircraft, but limitations including cost, errors in the detection of some species and dependence on taxonomic expertise, as well as good weather and visibility conditions often limit the temporal and spatial scale of effective, long-term monitoring programs. In recent years, environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a revolutionary tool for cost-effective, sensitive, non-invasive species monitoring in both terrestrial and aquatic realms. eDNA is a rapidly developing field and a growing number of studies have successfully implemented this approach for the detection and identification of marine mammals. Here, we review 21 studies published between 2012 and 2021 that employed eDNA for marine mammal monitoring including single species detection, biodiversity assessment and genetic characterization. eDNA has successfully been used to infer species presence (especially useful for rare, elusive or threatened species) and to characterize the population genetic structure, although additional research is needed to support the interpretation of non-detections. Finally, we discuss the challenges and the opportunities that eDNA could bring to marine mammal monitoring as a complementary tool to support visual and acoustic methods. Article in Journal/Newspaper Marine Mammal Monitoring Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Marine Science 9 |
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Monitoring marine mammal populations is essential to permit assessment of population status as required by both national and international legislation. Traditional monitoring methods often rely on visual and/or acoustic detections from vessels and aircraft, but limitations including cost, errors in the detection of some species and dependence on taxonomic expertise, as well as good weather and visibility conditions often limit the temporal and spatial scale of effective, long-term monitoring programs. In recent years, environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a revolutionary tool for cost-effective, sensitive, non-invasive species monitoring in both terrestrial and aquatic realms. eDNA is a rapidly developing field and a growing number of studies have successfully implemented this approach for the detection and identification of marine mammals. Here, we review 21 studies published between 2012 and 2021 that employed eDNA for marine mammal monitoring including single species detection, biodiversity assessment and genetic characterization. eDNA has successfully been used to infer species presence (especially useful for rare, elusive or threatened species) and to characterize the population genetic structure, although additional research is needed to support the interpretation of non-detections. Finally, we discuss the challenges and the opportunities that eDNA could bring to marine mammal monitoring as a complementary tool to support visual and acoustic methods. |
author2 |
Fundación Biodiversidad Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Suarez-Bregua, Paula Álvarez-González, Miguel Parsons, Kim M. Rotllant, Josep Pierce, Graham J. Saavedra, Camilo |
spellingShingle |
Suarez-Bregua, Paula Álvarez-González, Miguel Parsons, Kim M. Rotllant, Josep Pierce, Graham J. Saavedra, Camilo Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
author_facet |
Suarez-Bregua, Paula Álvarez-González, Miguel Parsons, Kim M. Rotllant, Josep Pierce, Graham J. Saavedra, Camilo |
author_sort |
Suarez-Bregua, Paula |
title |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
title_short |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
title_full |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
title_fullStr |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities |
title_sort |
environmental dna (edna) for monitoring marine mammals: challenges and opportunities |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774/full |
genre |
Marine Mammal Monitoring |
genre_facet |
Marine Mammal Monitoring |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.987774 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
9 |
_version_ |
1812178678944104448 |