Monitoring methods based on environmental DNA are faster, more comprehensive and cheaper than traditional ecological surveys. They help fill gaps in New Zealand’s data on river health.
One of the most damaging invasive species in the oceans has breached a major barrier – the Amazon-Orinoco river plume – and is spreading along Brazil’s coast. Scientists are trying to catch up.
Environmental DNA provides a wealth of information for conservationists, archaeologists and forensic scientists. But the unintentional pickup of human genetic information raises ethical questions.
DNA sequencing means a scientist can take a bucket of seawater and ID every fish in the area. Now we need a universal ‘biobank’ of samples to make a truly powerful environment monitoring tool.
Scientists are using environmental DNA to compile a census of life in Loch Ness and to establish if there is any scientific basis for the centuries-old monster legend.
Animals shed bits of DNA as they go about their lives. A new study of the Hudson River estuary tracked spring migration of ocean fish by collecting water samples and seeing whose DNA was present when.