EDNA surveys substantially expand known geographic and ecological niche boundaries of marine fishes.

ABSTRACT: Assessing species geographic distributions is critical to approximate their ecological niches, understand how global change may reshape their occurrence patterns, and predict their extinction risks. Yet, species records are over-aggregated across taxonomic, geographic, environmental, and anthropogenic dimensions. The under-sampling of remote locations biases the quantification of species geographic distributions and ecological niche for most species. Here, we used nearly one thousand environmental DNA (eDNA) samples across the world's oceans, including polar regions and tropical remote islands, to determine the extent to which the geographic and ecological niche ranges of marine fishes are underestimated through the lens of global occurrence records based on conventional surveys. Our eDNA

SUBMITTER: Sanchez L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12574855 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature