Environmental DNA preserved in marine sediment for detecting jellyfish blooms after a tsunami
Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be a powerful tool for detecting the distribution and abundance of target species. This study aimed to test the longevity of eDNA in marine sediment through a tank experiment and to use this information to reconstruct past faunal occurrence. In the tank experiment, juven...
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Published in | Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 16830 - 14 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
20.08.2021
Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
ISSN | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI | 10.1038/s41598-021-94286-2 |
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Summary: | Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be a powerful tool for detecting the distribution and abundance of target species. This study aimed to test the longevity of eDNA in marine sediment through a tank experiment and to use this information to reconstruct past faunal occurrence. In the tank experiment, juvenile jack mackerel (
Trachurus japonicus
) were kept in flow-through tanks with marine sediment for two weeks. Water and sediment samples from the tanks were collected after the removal of fish. In the field trial, sediment cores were collected in Moune Bay, northeast Japan, where unusual blooms of jellyfish (
Aurelia
sp.) occurred after a tsunami. The samples were analyzed by layers to detect the eDNA of jellyfish. The tank experiment revealed that after fish were removed, eDNA was not present in the water the next day, or subsequently, whereas eDNA was detectable in the sediment for 12 months. In the sediment core samples, jellyfish eDNA was detected at high concentrations above the layer with the highest content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, reflecting tsunami-induced oil spills. Thus, marine sediment eDNA preserves a record of target species for at least one year and can be used to reconstruct past faunal occurrence. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-021-94286-2 |