eDNA Metabarcoding- and Microscopic Analysis for Diet Determination in Waterfowl, a Comparative Study in Vejlerne, Denmark

Understanding diets and structural food webs are keys to the apprehension of ecological communities, upon which conservation and management biology are based. The understanding of grazing and habitat choice for waterfowl is one of the most important topics for avian ecologists today and can, to some...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology
Main Authors: Lützhøft Svendsen, Anna-Sofie, Nielsen, Louise Bach, Schmidt, Jakob Braüner, Bruhn, Dan, Andersen, Line Holm, Pertoldi, Cino
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
conservation biology
cumulative curves
diet determination
eDNA metabarcoding
frequency of occurrence
microscopy
taxonomic resolution
waterfowl
Anser brachyrhynchus
Barnacle goose
Branta leucopsis
Pink-footed Goose
Online Access:https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/ef1eb735-8129-41eb-987d-ff5318f566ee
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091272
https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/573814684/biology-12-01272-v2.pdf
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172221939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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Summary:Understanding diets and structural food webs are keys to the apprehension of ecological communities, upon which conservation and management biology are based. The understanding of grazing and habitat choice for waterfowl is one of the most important topics for avian ecologists today and can, to some degree, be answered by dietary analysis. Droppings collected from four waterfowl, the Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), Greylag goose (Anser anser), pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) and Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) in Vejlerne (Denmark), were analysed microscopically and through eDNA metabarcoding with the use of next generation sequencing (NGS) to accumulate knowledge about the diet of these waterfowl. In total, 120 dropping samples were microscopically analysed, of which the eDNA metabarcoding analysis was done on 79 samples. The prey items were identified according to the taxonomic level of species, and a qualitative method, frequency of occurrence (FO) and FO calculated as a percentage, was used in order to compare the results from the two methods. As neither of the methods was able to encompass all species discovered when combining the two methods, it was concluded in this study that the two methods can support each other in a dietary analysis of waterfowl, but not replace one another.

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