Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.

Anthropogenic activities are changing the state of ecosystems worldwide, affecting community composition and often resulting in loss of biodiversity. Rivers are among the most impacted ecosystems. Recording their current state with regular biomonitoring is important to assess the future trajectory o...

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Autores principales:	Jeanine Brantschen, Rosetta C Blackman, Jean-Claude Walser, Florian Altermatt
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5239885dc834434b9f39e25a81b980d4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5239885dc834434b9f39e25a81b980d42021-12-02T20:14:26ZEnvironmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0257510https://doaj.org/article/5239885dc834434b9f39e25a81b980d42021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257510https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Anthropogenic activities are changing the state of ecosystems worldwide, affecting community composition and often resulting in loss of biodiversity. Rivers are among the most impacted ecosystems. Recording their current state with regular biomonitoring is important to assess the future trajectory of biodiversity. Traditional monitoring methods for ecological assessments are costly and time-intensive. Here, we compared monitoring of macroinvertebrates based on environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling with monitoring based on traditional kick-net sampling to assess biodiversity patterns at 92 river sites covering all major Swiss river catchments. From the kick-net community data, a biotic index (IBCH) based on 145 indicator taxa had been established. The index was matched by the taxonomically annotated eDNA data by using a machine learning approach. Our comparison of diversity patterns only uses the zero-radius Operational Taxonomic Units assigned to the indicator taxa. Overall, we found a strong congruence between both methods for the assessment of the total indicator community composition (gamma diversity). However, when assessing biodiversity at the site level (alpha diversity), the methods were less consistent and gave complementary data on composition. Specifically, environmental DNA retrieved significantly fewer indicator taxa per site than the kick-net approach. Importantly, however, the subsequent ecological classification of rivers based on the detected indicators resulted in similar biotic index scores for the kick-net and the eDNA data that was classified using a random forest approach. The majority of the predictions (72%) from the random forest classification resulted in the same river status categories as the kick-net approach. Thus, environmental DNA validly detected indicator communities and, combined with machine learning, provided reliable classifications of the ecological state of rivers. Overall, while environmental DNA gives complementary data on the macroinvertebrate community composition compared to the kick-net approach, the subsequently calculated indices for the ecological classification of river sites are nevertheless directly comparable and consistent.Jeanine BrantschenRosetta C BlackmanJean-Claude WalserFlorian AltermattPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 9, p e0257510 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jeanine Brantschen Rosetta C Blackman Jean-Claude Walser Florian Altermatt Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
description	Anthropogenic activities are changing the state of ecosystems worldwide, affecting community composition and often resulting in loss of biodiversity. Rivers are among the most impacted ecosystems. Recording their current state with regular biomonitoring is important to assess the future trajectory of biodiversity. Traditional monitoring methods for ecological assessments are costly and time-intensive. Here, we compared monitoring of macroinvertebrates based on environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling with monitoring based on traditional kick-net sampling to assess biodiversity patterns at 92 river sites covering all major Swiss river catchments. From the kick-net community data, a biotic index (IBCH) based on 145 indicator taxa had been established. The index was matched by the taxonomically annotated eDNA data by using a machine learning approach. Our comparison of diversity patterns only uses the zero-radius Operational Taxonomic Units assigned to the indicator taxa. Overall, we found a strong congruence between both methods for the assessment of the total indicator community composition (gamma diversity). However, when assessing biodiversity at the site level (alpha diversity), the methods were less consistent and gave complementary data on composition. Specifically, environmental DNA retrieved significantly fewer indicator taxa per site than the kick-net approach. Importantly, however, the subsequent ecological classification of rivers based on the detected indicators resulted in similar biotic index scores for the kick-net and the eDNA data that was classified using a random forest approach. The majority of the predictions (72%) from the random forest classification resulted in the same river status categories as the kick-net approach. Thus, environmental DNA validly detected indicator communities and, combined with machine learning, provided reliable classifications of the ecological state of rivers. Overall, while environmental DNA gives complementary data on the macroinvertebrate community composition compared to the kick-net approach, the subsequently calculated indices for the ecological classification of river sites are nevertheless directly comparable and consistent.
format	article
author	Jeanine Brantschen Rosetta C Blackman Jean-Claude Walser Florian Altermatt
author_facet	Jeanine Brantschen Rosetta C Blackman Jean-Claude Walser Florian Altermatt
author_sort	Jeanine Brantschen
title	Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
title_short	Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
title_full	Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
title_fullStr	Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
title_full_unstemmed	Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
title_sort	environmental dna gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5239885dc834434b9f39e25a81b980d4
work_keys_str_mv	AT jeaninebrantschen environmentaldnagivescomparableresultstomorphologybasedindicesofmacroinvertebratesinalargescaleecologicalassessment AT rosettacblackman environmentaldnagivescomparableresultstomorphologybasedindicesofmacroinvertebratesinalargescaleecologicalassessment AT jeanclaudewalser environmentaldnagivescomparableresultstomorphologybasedindicesofmacroinvertebratesinalargescaleecologicalassessment AT florianaltermatt environmentaldnagivescomparableresultstomorphologybasedindicesofmacroinvertebratesinalargescaleecologicalassessment
_version_	1718374643875708928

Environmental DNA gives comparable results to morphology-based indices of macroinvertebrates in a large-scale ecological assessment.

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