23 May 2022 16:00 CET - - Air, dung beetles, leeches - new frontiers in terrestrial bio-monitoring using eDNA

Elizabeth Clare    Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Canada

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an ever more common tool for ecological research and biomonitoring. eDNA has been recovered from ice cores and water, rain, snow, honey and even from spraying foliage and collecting the runoff. In my research group we first used eDNA in stomach and faecal contents to study dietary ecology of bats and expanded this to other mammals and birds, terrestrial and aquatic arthropods, reptiles and even carnivorous plants. More recently we have been tracking terrestrial life using eDNA trapped in the gut of leeches and dung beetles in Borneo and most recently literally vacuuming it out of the sky in England. eDNA is literally everywhere we look. In this seminar I will discuss the most recent advances in the use of eDNA with an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities of air as a source.