Comparison of soil eDNA to camera traps for assessing mammal and bird community composition and site use.

ABSTRACT: Species detections often vary depending on the survey methods employed. Some species may go undetected when using only one approach in community-level inventory and monitoring programs, which has management and conservation implications. We conducted a comparative study of terrestrial mammal and bird detections in the spring and summer of 2021 by placing camera traps at 30 locations across a large military installation in northern Michigan, USA and testing replicate soil samples from these sites for environmental DNA (eDNA) using an established vertebrate metabarcoding assay. We detected a total of 48 taxa from both survey methods: 26 mammalian taxa (excluding humans, 24 to species and two to genus) and 22 avian taxa (21 to species and one to genus). We detected a relatively even distribut

SUBMITTER: Tetzlaff SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11246831 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature