Environmental DNA analysis confirms extant populations of the cryptic Irwin's turtle within its historical range.

Background: Approximately 50% of freshwater turtles worldwide are currently threatened by habitat loss, rural development and altered stream flows. Paradoxically, reptiles are understudied organisms, with many species lacking basic geographic distribution and abundance data. The iconic Irwin's turtle, Elseya irwini, belongs to a unique group of Australian endemic freshwater turtles capable of cloacal respiration.

Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations.

Background: Globally, amphibian species have suffered drastic population declines over the past 40 years. Hundreds of species are now listed as Critically Endangered, with many of these considered "possibly extinct". Most of these species are stream-dwelling frogs inhabiting remote, montane areas, where remnant populations are hard to find using traditional surveys.

Got Glycogen?: Development and Multispecies Validation of the Novel Preserve, Precipitate, Lyse, Precipitate, Purify (PPLPP) Workflow for Environmental DNA Extraction from Longmire's Preserved Water Samples.

Unfiltered and filtered water samples can be used to collect environmental DNA (eDNA). We developed the novel "Preserve, Precipitate, Lyse, Precipitate, Purify" (PPLPP) workflow to efficiently extract eDNA from Longmire's preserved unfiltered and filtered water samples (44-100% recovery). The PPLPP workflow includes initial glycogen-aided isopropanol precipitation, guanidium hypochlorite and Triton X-100-based lysis, terminal glycogen-aided polyethylene glycol precipitation, and inhibitor purification.

Freshwater fishes of northern Australia.

Northern Australia is biologically diverse and of national and global conservation signicance. Its ancient landscape contains the world's largest area of savannah ecosystem in good ecological condition and its rivers are largely free-flowing. Agriculture, previously confined largely to open range-land grazing, is set to expand in extent and to focus much more on irrigated cropping and horticulture.

Fine-tuning for the tropics: application of eDNA technology for invasive fish detection in tropical freshwater ecosystems.

Invasive species pose a major threat to aquatic ecosystems. Their impact can be particularly severe in tropical regions, like those in northern Australia, where >20 invasive fish species are recorded. In temperate regions, environmental DNA (eDNA) technology is gaining momentum as a tool to detect aquatic pests, but the technology's effectiveness has not been fully explored in tropical systems with their unique climatic challenges (i.

Improved dissolved oxygen status following removal of exotic weed mats in important fish habitat lagoons of the tropical Burdekin River floodplain, Australia.

The Burdekin delta floodplain, north Queensland, is highly modified for agricultural purposes. Riparian condition is very poor and exotic aquatic weeds dominate waterways. Historically, most streams and lagoons were highly seasonal, but those now used for the delivery of irrigation water maintain elevated flows and increased turbidity and nutrient loading.