<
https://theconversation.com/it-sounds-like-science-fiction-but-we-can-now-sample-water-to-find-the-dna-of-every-species-living-there-216989>
"Figuring out what species live in an ecosystem, and which ones are rare or
just good at hiding is an essential way to understand and care for them. Until
now, it’s been very labour intensive.
But now we can do it differently. Take a sample from the ocean and match tiny
traces of DNA in the water with the species living there.
It’s not science fiction – it’s environmental DNA sampling. This approach opens
the door to rapid, broad detection of species. You can find if pest species
have arrived, tell if a hard-to-find endangered species is still hanging on,
and gauge ecosystem health.
Because eDNA testing is still new, there are questions about its strengths and
weaknesses and how it can best be used. For instance, we can tell if extremely
rare freshwater sawfish are present in a Northern Territory river – but not how
many individual fish there are.
Today CSIRO released a roadmap created through consultation with many experts
to show how eDNA technologies can be best integrated into marine monitoring at
a large scale – and what the future holds."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
