Detection of an endangered aquatic heteropteran using environmental DNA in a wetland ecosystem

Abstract

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) has recently been employed to evaluate the distribution of various aquatic macroorganisms. Although this technique has been applied to a broad range of taxa, from vertebrates to invertebrates, its application is limited for aquatic insects such as aquatic heteropterans. Nepa hoffmanni (Heteroptera: Nepidae) is a small (approx. 23 mm) aquatic heteropteran that inhabits wetlands, can be difficult to capture and is endangered in Japan. The molecular tool eDNA was used to evaluate the species distribution of N. hoffmanni in comparison to that determined using hand-capturing methods in two regions of Japan. The eDNA of N. hoffmanni was detected at nearly all sites (10 eDNA-detected sites out of 14 sites), including sites where N. hoffmanni was not captured by hand (five eDNA-detected sites out of six captured sites). Thus, this species-specific eDNA technique can be applied to detect small, sparsely distributed heteropterans in wetland ecosystems. In conclusion, eDNA could be a valuable technique for the detection of aquatic insects inhabiting wetland habitats, and could make a significant contribution to providing distribution data necessary to species conservation.

Prospects and challenges of environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring in freshwater ponds

“…The complementarity of eDNA analysis and conventional methods for monitoring pond biodiversity has been repeatedly demonstrated, and the work of Thomsen et al (2012) on ponds and other freshwater habitats was pivotal to the development of eDNA surveillance for many rare and endangered species across the globe (e.g. Bylemans et al, 2017;Doi et al, 2017;Niemiller et al, 2017;Torresdal et al, 2017;Weltz et al, 2017). eDNA analysis has since shown potential for estimation of relative abundance and biomass (Takahara et al, 2012;Thomsen et al, 2012;Buxton et al, 2017b), and has begun to outperform conventional counterparts, for example, large-scale sampling and distribution modelling of the threatened great crested newt Triturus cristatus (Laurenti, 1768) (Biggs et al, 2015), and may deepen our understanding of species distribution patterns and activity.…”

Detection and Control of Invasive Freshwater Crayfish: From Traditional to Innovative Methods

“…Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a powerful tool for conservation and invasion biology in various environments [58,59], mainly aquatic ones [60][61][62]. eDNA is defined as "genetic material obtained directly from environmental samples (soil, sediment, water, etc.)…”

Accounting for observation processes across multiple levels of uncertainty improves inference of species distributions and guides adaptive sampling of environmental DNA

“…Detection of a target species' eDNA from water bodies is emerging as a potentially valuable method to infer the distribution of species and pathogens (Bohmann et al, 2014;Hunter et al, 2015;Takahara, Minamoto, & Doi, 2013). Efforts have been largely focused on aquatic and semi-aquatic species such as amphibians (Biggs et al, 2015;Pilliod, Goldberg, Arkle, & Waits, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2013), reptiles (Hunter et al, 2015;Piaggio et al, 2014), invertebrates (Doi et al, 2017;Thomsen et al, 2012), and fish (Takahara et al, 2013;Thomsen et al, 2012). As more recent work has applied eDNA detections in water bodies to terrestrial mammals (Rodgers & Mock, 2015;Ushio et al, 2017;Williams, Huyvaert, & Piaggio, 2017), the method could be especially useful for detecting new invasions of terrestrial species in the early stages.…”