Environmental DNA concentrations are correlated with regional biomass of Atlantic cod in oceanic waters

• Published in: Communications Biology
• Main Authors: Salter, Ian, Joensen, Mourits, Kristiansen, Regin, Steingrund, Petur, Vestergaard, Poul
• Other Authors: Fisheries Research Fund of the Faroe Islands. Grant Reference: COD-e-DNA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2019
• Subjects: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Medicine (miscellaneous); atlantic cod; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0696-8; http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0696-8.pdf; http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0696-8

Abstract Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a powerful approach for studying marine fisheries and has the potential to negate some of the drawbacks of trawl surveys. However, successful applications in oceanic waters have to date been largely focused on qualitative descriptions of species inventories. Here we conducted a quantitative eDNA survey of Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua ) in oceanic waters and compared it with results obtained from a standardized demersal trawl survey. Detection of eDNA originating from Atlantic cod was highly concordant (80%) with trawl catches. We observed significantly positive correlations between the regional integrals of Atlantic cod biomass (kg) and eDNA quantities (copies) (R 2 = 0.79, P = 0.003) and between sampling effort-normalised Catch Per Unit Effort (kg hr −1 ) and eDNA concentrations (copies L −1 ) (R 2 = 0.71, P = 0.008). These findings extend the potential application of environmental DNA to regional biomass assessments of commercially important fish stocks in the ocean.