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Using eDNA Metabarcoding to Monitor Changes in Fish Community Composition After Barrier Removal
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Deiene Rodriguez Barreto,
Richard O'Rorke,
Carlos Garcia De Leaniz ,
Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Volume: 9
Swansea University Authors:
Teja Muha , Deiene Rodriguez Barreto, Carlos Garcia De Leaniz , Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
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© 2021 Muha, Rodriguez-Barreto, O’Rorke, Garcia de Leaniz and Consuegra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fevo.2021.629217
Abstract
Artificial instream barriers are a major cause of habitat fragmentation that reduce population connectivity and gene flow by limiting fish movements. To mitigate their impacts, obsolete barriers are increasingly been removed worldwide, but few barrier removal projects are monitored. We employed a po...
| Published in: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
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| ISSN: | 2296-701X |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media SA
2021
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61495 |
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| Abstract: |
Artificial instream barriers are a major cause of habitat fragmentation that reduce population connectivity and gene flow by limiting fish movements. To mitigate their impacts, obsolete barriers are increasingly been removed worldwide, but few barrier removal projects are monitored. We employed a powerful Before-After-Downstream-Upstream (BADU) approach using environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to examine the effects on fish community composition of removing a weir in the river Lugg (England) that had been suggested to have a detrimental effect on salmonid migration. We found no change in fish community diversity or relative abundance after the removal above or below the weir, but detected an important effect of sampling season, likely related to the species' life cycles. eDNA detected nine fish species that were also identified by electrofishing sampling and one additional species (Anguilla anguilla) that was missed by traditional surveys. Our results suggest that monitoring of barrier removal projects should be carried out to ensure that any ecological benefits are properly documented and that eDNA metabarcoding is a sensitive technique to monitor the effects of barrier removal. |
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| Keywords: |
fish dispersal, spatio-temporal monitoring, freshwater habitat fragmentation, connectivity, eDNA |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This work has been funded by a H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant/Award (Ref 642197, AQUAINVAD_ED) to SC and the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant
Agreement No 689682, Adaptive Management of Barriers in European Rivers (AMBER) project to CG. |