Environmental DNA metabarcoding of lake fish communities reflects long‐term data from established survey methods

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding emerges as a powerful tool for accurately reflecting fish community composition and abundance in large lakes, outperforming traditional survey methods. A study comparing eDNA data from three deep lakes in the English Lake District—Windermere, Bassenthwaite Lake, and Derwent Water—to established gill-net surveys revealed that eDNA detected 14 of the 16 historically recorded fish species in Windermere, compared to just four species identified by gill-netting. Using sequence reads per species and site occupancy as proxies for abundance, the study found strong correlations with rank abundance estimates from conventional methods, demonstrating eDNA's potential as a complementary or alternative approach for biodiversity monitoring. This method leverages DNA shed by organisms into their environment, offering a non-invasive and highly sensitive means to assess ecological communities.

Hänfling, B., Lawson Handley, L., Read, D. S., Hahn, C., Li, J., Nichols, P., Blackman, R. C., Oliver, A., & Winfield, I. J. (2016). EnvironmentalDNAmetabarcoding of lake fish communities reflects long‐term data from established survey methods. Molecular Ecology, 25(13), 3101–3119. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13660