Nonindigenous species are introduced worldwide with ballast water (BW). To prevent further introductions, oceanic BW exchange and BW treatment systems are utilized, but their performance needs to be evaluated. To that aim, characterizing BW communities is essential but usually relies on exhaustive sampling and morphological taxonomic identification, which does not always allow fine-scale taxonomic resolution. Through the analysis of BW samples from 11 vessels arriving to the Chesapeake Bay (USA), we evaluated the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for BW monitoring by assessing whether the impact of BW management type could be identified, analyzing the influence of BW sampling access locations on communities, and comparing the accuracy of eDNA for taxonomic assignment and identification of nonindigenous taxa. We found that (1) different sampling access locations of the same tank resulted in different communities, (2) communities from treated and exchanged BW differ, (3) signals of source port and of ocean exchange are observed, (4) eDNA metabarcoding results in more diversity than morphological taxonomy, and (5) the nonindigenous copepod , not reported before in the Chesapeake Bay, is detected. Overall, this study highlights the potential of eDNA metabarcoding for BW monitoring, but more comprehensive sampling will be needed to optimize the approach.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01855 | DOI Listing |
CRISPR J
January 2025
OceanOmics, The Minderoo Foundation, Perth, Australia.
Characterizing biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA) represents a paradigm shift in our capacity for biomonitoring complex environments, both aquatic and terrestrial. However, eDNA biomonitoring is limited by biases toward certain species and the low taxonomic resolution of current metabarcoding approaches. Shotgun metagenomics of eDNA enables the collection of whole ecosystem data by sequencing all molecules present, allowing characterization and identification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Environ Res
December 2024
School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Yangtze Delta Estuarine Wetland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Science and Technology Committee, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:
Seawall construction has complex ecological impacts. However, the ecological mechanisms within plankton communities under tidal restriction resulting from seawall construction remain unexplored. Using environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, this study examined the impact of seawall construction on the assembly process of planktonic eukaryote and bacteria communities from the unrestricted area and the tide-restricted area in the Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve of Yangtze River Estuary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Sci Rep
December 2024
Food System Integrity, AgResearch Limited, Hopkirk Research Institute, Massey University, Cnr University Avenue and Library Road, Private Bag 11008, Palmerston North, 4442, New Zealand.
Understanding the composition of complex Escherichia coli populations from the environment is necessary for identifying strategies to reduce the impacts of fecal contamination and protect public health. Metabarcoding targeting the hypervariable gene gnd was used to reveal the complex population diversity of E. coli and phenotypically indistinct Escherichia species in water, soil, sediment, aquatic biofilm, and fecal samples from native forest and pastoral sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods Mol Biol
December 2024
The James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK.
We describe a protocol to amplify DNA barcodes of known and unknown taxa of Phytophthora and related plant pathogenic oomycetes from a range of environments. The methods focus on sampling pathogen propagules from water using in situ sampling and filtration equipment and buffers that enable efficient storage and DNA extraction for later downstream processing.
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