Holistic monitoring of freshwater and terrestrial vertebrates by camera trapping and environmental DNA

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The anthropogenic impact on the world's ecosystems is severe and the need for non-invasive, cost-effective tools for monitoring and understanding those impacts are therefore urgent. Here, we combine two such methods in a comprehensive multi-year study; camera trapping (CT) and analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA), in river marginal zones of a temperate, wetland Nature Park in Denmark. CT was performed from 2015 to 2019 for a total of 8778 camera trap days and yielded 24,376 animal observations. The CT observations covered 87 taxa, of which 78 were identified to species level, and 73 were wild native species. For eDNA metabarcoding, a total of 114 freshwater samples were collected from eight sites in all four seasons from 2017 to 2018. The eDNA results yielded a total detection of 80 taxa, of which 74 were identified to species level, and 65 were wild native species. While the number of taxa detected with the two methods were comparable, the species overlap was only 20%. In combination, CT and eDNA monitoring thus yielded a total of 115 wild species (20 fishes, 4 amphibians, one snake, 23 mammals, and 67 birds), representing half of the species found via conventional surveys over the last ca. 20 years (83% of fishes, 68% of mammals, 67% of amphibians, 41% of birds, and 20% of reptiles). Our study demonstrates that a holistic approach combining two non-invasive methods, CT, and eDNA metabarcoding, has great potential as a cost-effective biomonitoring tool for vertebrates.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftEnvironmental DNA
Vol/bind5
Udgave nummer6
Sider (fra-til)1608-1622
Antal sider15
ISSN2637-4943
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
Special thanks go to all the people who helped in making this project possible. To 15. Juni Fonden for financial support, to Nature Park Åmosen for allowing research in the area; to Hans Henrik Erhardi and The Danish Nature Agency, Vestsjælland for logistics and introduction to the area; to Hans Erik Svart for providing the first camera traps and for introduction to the Zealand otter. Thanks to the private landowners at Kattrup Gods especially Jens Hansen and Jakob Bak, for their help and cooperation. Special thanks to Jan Bolding Kristensen, Mikkel H. Post, and Hans J. Baagøe who helped verify bird and mammal identifications and to Henrik Carl for help with fish identifications.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Environmental DNA published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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