Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems
Antarctic benthic ecosystems support high biodiversity but their characterization is limited to a few well-studied areas, due to the extreme environment and remoteness making access and sampling difficult. Our aim was to compare water and sediment as sources of environmental DNA (eDNA) to better cha...
Published in: | PeerJ |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
PeerJ
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12458 https://peerj.com/articles/12458.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/12458.xml https://peerj.com/articles/12458.html |
id |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.12458 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.12458 2024-09-30T14:25:58+00:00 Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems Clarke, Laurence J. Suter, Leonie Deagle, Bruce E. Polanowski, Andrea M. Terauds, Aleks Johnstone, Glenn J. Stark, Jonathan S. Australian Antarctic Program Project Australian Antarctic Science Program 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12458 https://peerj.com/articles/12458.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/12458.xml https://peerj.com/articles/12458.html en eng PeerJ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PeerJ volume 9, page e12458 ISSN 2167-8359 journal-article 2021 crpeerj https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12458 2024-09-17T04:34:21Z Antarctic benthic ecosystems support high biodiversity but their characterization is limited to a few well-studied areas, due to the extreme environment and remoteness making access and sampling difficult. 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 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 across 26 sites, with similar numbers of species detected in sediment and water eDNA samples. However, significantly different communities were detected in the two sample types at sites where both were collected ( i.e. , where paired samples were available). For example, nematodes and echinoderms were more likely to be detected exclusively in sediment and water eDNA samples, respectively. eDNA from water and sediment core samples are complementary sample types, with epifauna more likely to be detected in water column samples and infauna in sediment. More reference DNA sequences are needed for infauna/meiofauna to increase the proportion of sequences and number of taxa that can be identified. Developing a better understanding of the temporal and spatial dynamics of eDNA at low temperatures would also aid interpretation of eDNA signals from polar environments. Our results provide a preliminary scan of benthic metazoan communities in the Vestfold Hills, with additional markers required to provide a comprehensive biodiversity survey. However, our study demonstrates the choice of sample type for eDNA studies of benthic ecosystems (sediment, water or both) needs to be carefully considered in light of the research or monitoring question of interest. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica PeerJ Publishing Antarctic East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills PeerJ 9 e12458 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PeerJ Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crpeerj |
language |
English |
description |
Antarctic benthic ecosystems support high biodiversity but their characterization is limited to a few well-studied areas, due to the extreme environment and remoteness making access and sampling difficult. 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 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 across 26 sites, with similar numbers of species detected in sediment and water eDNA samples. However, significantly different communities were detected in the two sample types at sites where both were collected ( i.e. , where paired samples were available). For example, nematodes and echinoderms were more likely to be detected exclusively in sediment and water eDNA samples, respectively. eDNA from water and sediment core samples are complementary sample types, with epifauna more likely to be detected in water column samples and infauna in sediment. More reference DNA sequences are needed for infauna/meiofauna to increase the proportion of sequences and number of taxa that can be identified. Developing a better understanding of the temporal and spatial dynamics of eDNA at low temperatures would also aid interpretation of eDNA signals from polar environments. Our results provide a preliminary scan of benthic metazoan communities in the Vestfold Hills, with additional markers required to provide a comprehensive biodiversity survey. However, our study demonstrates the choice of sample type for eDNA studies of benthic ecosystems (sediment, water or both) needs to be carefully considered in light of the research or monitoring question of interest. |
author2 |
Australian Antarctic Program Project Australian Antarctic Science Program |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Clarke, Laurence J. Suter, Leonie Deagle, Bruce E. Polanowski, Andrea M. Terauds, Aleks Johnstone, Glenn J. Stark, Jonathan S. |
spellingShingle |
Clarke, Laurence J. Suter, Leonie Deagle, Bruce E. Polanowski, Andrea M. Terauds, Aleks Johnstone, Glenn J. Stark, Jonathan S. Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
author_facet |
Clarke, Laurence J. Suter, Leonie Deagle, Bruce E. Polanowski, Andrea M. Terauds, Aleks Johnstone, Glenn J. Stark, Jonathan S. |
author_sort |
Clarke, Laurence J. |
title |
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
title_short |
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
title_full |
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in Antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
title_sort |
environmental dna metabarcoding for monitoring metazoan biodiversity in antarctic nearshore ecosystems |
publisher |
PeerJ |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12458 https://peerj.com/articles/12458.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/12458.xml https://peerj.com/articles/12458.html |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
op_source |
PeerJ volume 9, page e12458 ISSN 2167-8359 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12458 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
container_volume |
9 |
container_start_page |
e12458 |
_version_ |
1811646520414437376 |