Multi-marker DNA metabarcoding detects suites of environmental gradients from an urban harbour.

ABSTRACT: There is increasing need for biodiversity monitoring, especially in places where potential anthropogenic disturbance may significantly impact ecosystem health. We employed a combination of traditional morphological and bulk macroinvertebrate metabarcoding analyses to benthic samples collected from Toronto Harbour (Ontario, Canada) to compare taxonomic and functional diversity of macroinvertebrates and their responses to environmental gradients. At the species rank, sites assessed using COI metabarcoding showed more variation than sites assessed using morphological methods. Depending on the assessment method, we detected gradients in magnesium (morphological taxa), ammonia (morphological taxa, COI sequence variants), pH (18S sequence variants) as well as gradients in contaminants such as me

SUBMITTER: Robinson CV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9217803 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature