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Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations

BACKGROUND: Globally, amphibian species have suffered drastic population declines over the past 40 years. Hundreds of species are now listed as Critically Endangered, with many of these considered “possibly extinct”. Most of these species are stream-dwelling frogs inhabiting remote, montane areas, w...

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Autores principales: Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia, Hoskin, Conrad J., Strugnell, Jan M., Burrows, Damien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8483009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34692243
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12013
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author Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia
Hoskin, Conrad J.
Strugnell, Jan M.
Burrows, Damien
author_facet Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia
Hoskin, Conrad J.
Strugnell, Jan M.
Burrows, Damien
author_sort Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Globally, amphibian species have suffered drastic population declines over the past 40 years. Hundreds of species are now listed as Critically Endangered, with many of these considered “possibly extinct”. Most of these species are stream-dwelling frogs inhabiting remote, montane areas, where remnant populations are hard to find using traditional surveys. Environmental DNA (eDNA) could revolutionize surveys for ‘missing’ and endangered amphibian populations by screening water samples from downstream sections to assess presence in the upstream catchments. However, the utility of this survey technique is dependent on quantifying downstream detection probability and distances. METHODS: Here we tested downstream detection distances in two endangered stream frogs (Litoria lorica and L. nannotis) that co-occur in a remote stream catchment in north-east Australia, and for which we know precise downstream distributional limits from traditional surveys. Importantly, the two last populations of L. lorica persist in this catchment: one small (~1,000 frogs) and one very small (~100 frogs). We conducted eDNA screening at a series of sites kilometers downstream from the populations using precipitation from two fixed water volumes (15 and 100 mL) and via water filtering (mean 1,480 L). RESULTS: We detected L. nannotis and the small L. lorica population (~1,000 frogs) at most sampling sites, including 22.8 km downstream. The filtration method was highly effective for far-downstream detection, as was precipitation from 100 mL water samples, which also resulted in consistent detections at the far-downstream sites (including to 22.8 km). In contrast, we had limited downstream detection success for the very small L. lorica population (~100 frogs). DISCUSSION: The ecological aspects of our study system, coupled with thorough traditional surveys, enabled us to measure downstream eDNA detection distances with accuracy. We demonstrate that eDNA from a small population of approximately 1,000 frogs can be detected as far as 22.8 km downstream from the population. Water filtration is considered best for eDNA detection of rare aquatic species—indeed it was effective in this study—but we also achieved far-downstream detections when precipitating eDNA from 100 mL water samples. Collecting small water volumes for subsequent precipitation in the lab is more practical than filtration when surveying remote areas. Our downstream detection distances (>20 km) suggest eDNA is a valuable tool for detecting rare stream amphibians. We provide recommendations on optimal survey methods.
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spelling pubmed-84830092021-10-22 Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia Hoskin, Conrad J. Strugnell, Jan M. Burrows, Damien PeerJ Ecology BACKGROUND: Globally, amphibian species have suffered drastic population declines over the past 40 years. Hundreds of species are now listed as Critically Endangered, with many of these considered “possibly extinct”. Most of these species are stream-dwelling frogs inhabiting remote, montane areas, where remnant populations are hard to find using traditional surveys. Environmental DNA (eDNA) could revolutionize surveys for ‘missing’ and endangered amphibian populations by screening water samples from downstream sections to assess presence in the upstream catchments. However, the utility of this survey technique is dependent on quantifying downstream detection probability and distances. METHODS: Here we tested downstream detection distances in two endangered stream frogs (Litoria lorica and L. nannotis) that co-occur in a remote stream catchment in north-east Australia, and for which we know precise downstream distributional limits from traditional surveys. Importantly, the two last populations of L. lorica persist in this catchment: one small (~1,000 frogs) and one very small (~100 frogs). We conducted eDNA screening at a series of sites kilometers downstream from the populations using precipitation from two fixed water volumes (15 and 100 mL) and via water filtering (mean 1,480 L). RESULTS: We detected L. nannotis and the small L. lorica population (~1,000 frogs) at most sampling sites, including 22.8 km downstream. The filtration method was highly effective for far-downstream detection, as was precipitation from 100 mL water samples, which also resulted in consistent detections at the far-downstream sites (including to 22.8 km). In contrast, we had limited downstream detection success for the very small L. lorica population (~100 frogs). DISCUSSION: The ecological aspects of our study system, coupled with thorough traditional surveys, enabled us to measure downstream eDNA detection distances with accuracy. We demonstrate that eDNA from a small population of approximately 1,000 frogs can be detected as far as 22.8 km downstream from the population. Water filtration is considered best for eDNA detection of rare aquatic species—indeed it was effective in this study—but we also achieved far-downstream detections when precipitating eDNA from 100 mL water samples. Collecting small water volumes for subsequent precipitation in the lab is more practical than filtration when surveying remote areas. Our downstream detection distances (>20 km) suggest eDNA is a valuable tool for detecting rare stream amphibians. We provide recommendations on optimal survey methods. PeerJ Inc. 2021-09-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8483009/ /pubmed/34692243 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12013 Text en © 2021 Villacorta-Rath et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Villacorta-Rath, Cecilia
Hoskin, Conrad J.
Strugnell, Jan M.
Burrows, Damien
Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title_full Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title_fullStr Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title_full_unstemmed Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title_short Long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for eDNA in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
title_sort long distance (>20 km) downstream detection of endangered stream frogs suggests an important role for edna in surveying for remnant amphibian populations
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8483009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34692243
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12013
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