Environmental DNA Assay for the Detection of the American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) in the Early Stages of the Invasion in the Ebre Delta.

ABSTRACT: The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is considered to be one of the most harmful invasive species. In the Iberian Peninsula, this species had been cited occasionally until the year 2018, when L. catesbeianus appeared in the Ebre Delta, and, for the first time, it started breeding in a territory of the Peninsula. Using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis and visual surveys, the American bullfrog invasion in the Ebre Delta was monitored across two consecutive years (2019-2020). No specimens were observed in 2019, and results for the eDNA survey also failed to detect this species in the Delta. In 2020, two individuals were captured and, under the most conservative criteria to constrain the number of positive detections, eDNA analyses detected the presence of the America

SUBMITTER: Sanz N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9952411 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature