Airborne environmental DNA for terrestrial vertebrate community monitoring

Summary

Biodiversity monitoring at the community scale is a critical element of assessing and studying species distributions, ecology, diversity, and movements, and it is key to understanding and tracking environmental and anthropogenic effects on natural ecosystems. 1, 2, 3, 4 Vertebrates in terrestrial ecosystems are experiencing extinctions and declines in both population numbers and sizes due to increasing threats from human activities and environmental change. 5, 6, 7, 8 Terrestrial vertebrate monitoring using existing methods is generally costly and laborious, and although environmental DNA (eDNA) is becoming the tool of choice to assess biodiversity, few sample types effectively capture terrestrial vertebrate diversity. We hypothesized that eDNA captured from air could allow straightforward collection and characterization of terrestrial vertebrate communities. We filtered air at three localities in the Copenhagen Zoo: a stable, outside between the outdoor enclosures, and in the Rainforest House. Through metabarcoding of airborne eDNA, we detected 49 vertebrate species spanning 26 orders and 37 families: 30 mammal, 13 bird, 4 fish, 1 amphibian, and 1 reptile species. These spanned animals kept at the zoo, species occurring in the zoo surroundings, and species used as feed in the zoo. The detected species comprise a range of taxonomic orders and families, sizes, behaviors, and abundances. We found shorter distance to the air sampling device and higher animal biomass to increase the probability of detection. We hereby show that airborne eDNA can offer a fundamentally new way of studying and monitoring terrestrial communities.

Highlights

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  49 vertebrate species detected through metabarcoding of airborne eDNA from the zoo

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  Detections included 30 mammal, 13 bird, 4 fish, 1 amphibian, and 1 reptile species

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  6 to 21 vertebrate species were detected per air filtering sample

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  Shorter geographical distance and higher biomass increased probability of detection

Abstract

Lynggaard et al. demonstrate that airborne environmental DNA coupled with metabarcoding and high-throughput sequencing can be used to detect terrestrial vertebrates. The 49 detected species are known to occur in or around the zoo study site. Animals in closer proximity to the sampler and present in larger biomass have higher detection probability.