Elasmobranch diversity across a remote coral reef atoll revealed through environmental DNA metabarcoding
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
As elasmobranchs are becoming increasingly threatened, efficient methods for monitoring the distribution and diversity of elasmobranch populations are required. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is an increasingly applied technique that enables mass identification of entire communities and is an effective method for the detection of rare and elusive species. We performed an eDNA metabarcoding survey for fish communities around a coral reef atoll in the Chagos Archipelago and assessed the diversity and distribution of elasmobranch species detected within these communities. Our eDNA survey detected 353 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) attributed to fishes, 12 of which were elasmobranchs. There were no differences in fish communities based on the presence and absence of ASVs between sample depth (surface and 40m) or sampling habitat, but communities based on read abundance were significantly different between habitats. The dominant elasmobranch species were grey reef (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) and silvertip (C. albimarginatus) sharks, and elasmobranch communities were significantly different between sampling depth and habitat. Overall, we find that eDNA metabarcoding can be used to reveal the diversity of elasmobranchs within broader taxonomic assays, but further research and development of targeted metabarcoding primers may be required before it can be integrated into a toolkit for monitoring these species.
Date Issued
2022-10-01
Date Acceptance
2022-02-01
Citation
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2022, 196 (2), pp.593-607
ISSN
0024-4082
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
593
End Page
607
Journal / Book Title
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
Volume
196
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Linnean Society of London.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac014/6568409
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Zoology
barcoding
conservation genetics
eDNA metabarcoding
fish
marine
sharks
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
FISH COMMUNITIES
SHARKS
EDNA
CONSERVATION
BIODIVERSITY
RAYS
Evolutionary Biology
0608 Zoology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-04-14