Multi-Tool Marine Metabarcoding Bioassessment for Baselining and Monitoring Species and Communities in Kelp Habitats.

ABSTRACT: The astonishing biological diversity found in Californian kelp forests requires efficient and robust monitoring tools to better understand ecological trends and mitigate against loss or disruption of ecosystem services due to human pressure and climate changes. With environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding becoming a popular biodiversity assessment approach, we set out to evaluate a combination of powerful, rapid and sustainable eDNA solutions for characterising marine community composition in kelp-dominated habitats along the central California coast, in the newly proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. We employed and compared the efficiency of several eDNA collection approaches, including 'traditional' surface water filtration, the collection of organisms encrusting cobble ro

SUBMITTER: Maiello G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12415811 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature