Environmental DNA reveals the fine-grained and hierarchical spatial structure of kelp forest fish communities.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity is changing at an accelerating rate at both local and regional scales. Beta diversity, which quantifies species turnover between these two scales, is emerging as a key driver of ecosystem function that can inform spatial conservation. Yet measuring biodiversity remains a major challenge, especially in aquatic ecosystems. Decoding environmental DNA (eDNA) left behind by organisms offers the possibility of detecting species sans direct observation, a Rosetta Stone for biodiversity. While eDNA has proven useful to illuminate diversity in aquatic ecosystems, its utility for measuring beta diversity over spatial scales small enough to be relevant to conservation purposes is poorly known. Here we tested how eDNA performs relative to underwater visual census (UVC) to evaluate beta di

SUBMITTER: Lamy T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8280230 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature