Aquatic eDNA outperforms sedimentary eDNA for the detection of estuarine fish communities in subtropical coastal vegetated ecosystems DOI Creative Commons
Emma Isabelle Rossouw, Sophie von der Heyden, Nasreen Peer

et al.

Journal of Fish Biology, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: unknown

Published: April 14, 2025

Abstract In South Africa, mangrove forests and seagrass meadows often co‐occur in estuarine systems combination host rich, endemic biodiversity. There is an urgent need to explore community diversity coastal vegetated ecosystems, given the degrading effects of climate change anthropogenic pressures. Environmental DNA metabarcoding a promising biomonitoring tool African although studies highlight optimise standardise sampling protocols. This study aimed contribute developing protocols by understanding applicability environmental (eDNA) within habitats investigating using two different sample types. Aquatic sedimentary samples from three estuaries along east coast with MiFish metabarcoding, detected 148 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing 67 fish genera 50 families, only 16% were resolved species. We observed that aquatic eDNA 97% total diversity, suggesting this efficient comprehensively detect ichthyofaunal diversity. did not communities between mangroves seagrasses our findings underscore importance taking hydrological connectivity into consideration for design. Overall, work reinforces key considerations future focused on fauna estuaries, therefore contributes optimising support

Language: Английский

Aquatic eDNA outperforms sedimentary eDNA for the detection of estuarine fish communities in subtropical coastal vegetated ecosystems DOI Creative Commons
Emma Isabelle Rossouw, Sophie von der Heyden, Nasreen Peer

et al.

Journal of Fish Biology, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: unknown

Published: April 14, 2025

Abstract In South Africa, mangrove forests and seagrass meadows often co‐occur in estuarine systems combination host rich, endemic biodiversity. There is an urgent need to explore community diversity coastal vegetated ecosystems, given the degrading effects of climate change anthropogenic pressures. Environmental DNA metabarcoding a promising biomonitoring tool African although studies highlight optimise standardise sampling protocols. This study aimed contribute developing protocols by understanding applicability environmental (eDNA) within habitats investigating using two different sample types. Aquatic sedimentary samples from three estuaries along east coast with MiFish metabarcoding, detected 148 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing 67 fish genera 50 families, only 16% were resolved species. We observed that aquatic eDNA 97% total diversity, suggesting this efficient comprehensively detect ichthyofaunal diversity. did not communities between mangroves seagrasses our findings underscore importance taking hydrological connectivity into consideration for design. Overall, work reinforces key considerations future focused on fauna estuaries, therefore contributes optimising support

Language: Английский

Citations

0