Hidden diversity: DNA metabarcoding reveals hyper-diverse benthic invertebrate communities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Freshwater ecosystems, such as streams, are facing increasing pressures from agricultural land use and recent literature stresses the importance of robust biomonitoring to detect trends in insect decline globally. Aquatic insects and other macroinvertebrates are often used as indicators of ecological condition in freshwater biomonitoring programs; however, these diverse groups can present challenges to morphological identification and coarse-level taxonomic resolution can mask patterns in community composition. Here, we incorporate molecular identification (DNA metabarcoding) into a stream biomonitoring sampling design to explore the diversity and variability of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities at small spatial scales. While individual stream reaches can be very het

SUBMITTER: Gleason JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10189981 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature