By Madison Fung
In the past, conservation research usually required a physical presence, such as a motion-sensitive camera to photograph passing animals. This was before environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, was discovered. Unlike traditional conservation research practices, environmental DNA lasts long, extending to days, weeks, and years. It helps scientists learn about various living beings and monitor biodiversity without needing to be present when biological beings shed their DNA. For example, scientists can analyse eDNA to “track the spread of invasive species” or “identify species thought to be extinct”. The discovery of environmental DNA led to breakthroughs in conservational research.
Environmental DNA is everywhere around us. It is in the air, in the water and in the soil. Living beings always shed DNA, leaving behind genetic signatures in flakes of skin, pieces of scales, grains of pollen and so on. The abundance of eDNA allows scientists to collect genetic samples of different plants and animals, which greatly benefits the study of biological species. Molecular ecologist Elizabeth Clare of York University in Toronto says that environmental DNA has “changed everything” about how scientists study biodiversity and conservation.
Scientists were able to collect DNA from water and soil but they could not figure out how to trap environmental DNA in the air. In 2022, however, two independent research groups reported experiments that pulled animal DNA out of thin air at zoos – simply by using a vacuum! Ecologist Elizabeth Clare and her team sampled air at the Hamerton Zoo and successfully identified a total of 25 different species. On the other hand, Biologist Kristine Bohmann and her colleagues at the University of Copenhagen went to the Copenhagen Zoo. They managed to use both extremely small fans and vacuums to gather eDNA in the air. These new methods of harvesting airborne eDNA “opens up whole new ways of measuring biodiversity”, says David Duffy, a biologist working at the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine.
Environmental DNA offers scientists an effective way to keep track of all kinds of wildlife – even those that have already gone extinct – because it lasts for a long period. As new technology for detecting environmental DNA develops, eDNA continues to contribute to the field of science as the key to understanding biodiversity.
Works Cited
Coleman, Jude. “Scientists vacuumed animal DNA out of thin air for the first time.” ScienceNews, 18 January 2022, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/animal-dna-air-scientist-vacuum-first-time-zoo. Accessed 17 November 2024.
de Jesús, Erin Garcia. “Stray DNA is all around us. It could revolutionize conservation.” ScienceNews, 14 November 2024, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/edna-environmental-conservation. Accessed 14 November 2024.Government of Canada. “Environmental DNA at Parks Canada – Nature and science.” Parks Canada, 16 July 2024, https://parks.canada.ca/nature/science/especes-species/adne-edna. Accessed 14 November 2024.
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