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A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?

Sophia Coveney, Tamsyn Uren Webster Orcid Logo, Sofia Consuegra del Olmo Orcid Logo, Graeme C. Hays Orcid Logo, Nicole Esteban Orcid Logo

Marine Biology, Volume: 172, Issue: 10

Swansea University Authors: Sophia Coveney, Tamsyn Uren Webster Orcid Logo, Sofia Consuegra del Olmo Orcid Logo, Nicole Esteban Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s00227-025-04712-6

Abstract

Diet characterisation is important for understanding trophic roles of animals across space and time, including in response to climate change. This has led to the development of a large range of dietary analysis techniques, from centuries-old morphological stomach analysis to recent molecular techniq...

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Published in: Marine Biology
ISSN: 0025-3162 1432-1793
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70114
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This has led to the development of a large range of dietary analysis techniques, from centuries-old morphological stomach analysis to recent molecular techniques. Given the difficulties and limitations of direct analysis in marine animals, here we review DNA-based methods of marine vertebrate diet analysis, examining the proliferation of studies over the last two decades. We identify a keystone taxon, sea turtles, where DNA-based approaches have had limited use, but offer great potential for characterising diet across species, life stages and regions. We show that contemporary molecular techniques can overcome some limitations of traditional methods based on morphological identification, such as the ability to identify rapidly digested food items. We report on the development of DNA metabarcoding protocols that enable simultaneous identification of many diet item sequences from heterogeneous samples. DNA metabarcoding can increase taxonomic resolution, improve the identification of certain items (e.g., gelatinous organisms), and increase the comprehensiveness of diet characterisation, particularly in combination with other techniques. However, careful methodological development and finer optimisation of metabarcoding protocols (e.g., appropriate primer selection, blocking of host DNA amplification) are necessary to improve results. 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spelling 2025-10-06T12:16:39.0943127 v2 70114 2025-08-05 A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology? d1d2ee71208adad26732e182016973e3 Sophia Coveney Sophia Coveney true false 3ea91c154926c86f89ea6a761122ecf6 0000-0002-0072-9745 Tamsyn Uren Webster Tamsyn Uren Webster true false 241f2810ab8f56be53ca8af23e384c6e 0000-0003-4403-2509 Sofia Consuegra del Olmo Sofia Consuegra del Olmo true false fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319 0000-0003-4693-7221 Nicole Esteban Nicole Esteban true false 2025-08-05 BGPS Diet characterisation is important for understanding trophic roles of animals across space and time, including in response to climate change. This has led to the development of a large range of dietary analysis techniques, from centuries-old morphological stomach analysis to recent molecular techniques. Given the difficulties and limitations of direct analysis in marine animals, here we review DNA-based methods of marine vertebrate diet analysis, examining the proliferation of studies over the last two decades. We identify a keystone taxon, sea turtles, where DNA-based approaches have had limited use, but offer great potential for characterising diet across species, life stages and regions. We show that contemporary molecular techniques can overcome some limitations of traditional methods based on morphological identification, such as the ability to identify rapidly digested food items. We report on the development of DNA metabarcoding protocols that enable simultaneous identification of many diet item sequences from heterogeneous samples. DNA metabarcoding can increase taxonomic resolution, improve the identification of certain items (e.g., gelatinous organisms), and increase the comprehensiveness of diet characterisation, particularly in combination with other techniques. However, careful methodological development and finer optimisation of metabarcoding protocols (e.g., appropriate primer selection, blocking of host DNA amplification) are necessary to improve results. Combination approaches to sea turtle dietary analysis and further experimentation with metabarcoding methodology will help to characterise variations and effectively monitor shifts in diet composition in response to environmental changes such as rising sea temperatures and displacement to alternative foraging grounds. Journal Article Marine Biology 172 10 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 0025-3162 1432-1793 Diet analysis; Molecular ecology; Marine vertebrate; DNA barcoding; Marine turtles; Sea turtle diet 1 10 2025 2025-10-01 10.1007/s00227-025-04712-6 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Fondation Bertarelli (Project 820633, Project 820633); Swansea University (Faculty of Science and Engineering scholarship) 2025-10-06T12:16:39.0943127 2025-08-05T12:37:56.1574848 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Sophia Coveney 1 Tamsyn Uren Webster 0000-0002-0072-9745 2 Sofia Consuegra del Olmo 0000-0003-4403-2509 3 Graeme C. Hays 0000-0002-3314-8189 4 Nicole Esteban 0000-0003-4693-7221 5 70114__35256__d4b9af1028c74c8eb5956655f1ffa55c.pdf 70114.VoR.pdf 2025-10-06T12:14:22.6296112 Output 2535816 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
spellingShingle A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
Sophia Coveney
Tamsyn Uren Webster
Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
Nicole Esteban
title_short A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
title_full A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
title_fullStr A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
title_full_unstemmed A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
title_sort A review of dietary DNA metabarcoding in marine vertebrates: a new frontier in sea turtle foraging ecology?
author_id_str_mv d1d2ee71208adad26732e182016973e3
3ea91c154926c86f89ea6a761122ecf6
241f2810ab8f56be53ca8af23e384c6e
fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319
author_id_fullname_str_mv d1d2ee71208adad26732e182016973e3_***_Sophia Coveney
3ea91c154926c86f89ea6a761122ecf6_***_Tamsyn Uren Webster
241f2810ab8f56be53ca8af23e384c6e_***_Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319_***_Nicole Esteban
author Sophia Coveney
Tamsyn Uren Webster
Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
Nicole Esteban
author2 Sophia Coveney
Tamsyn Uren Webster
Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
Graeme C. Hays
Nicole Esteban
format Journal article
container_title Marine Biology
container_volume 172
container_issue 10
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0025-3162
1432-1793
doi_str_mv 10.1007/s00227-025-04712-6
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Diet characterisation is important for understanding trophic roles of animals across space and time, including in response to climate change. This has led to the development of a large range of dietary analysis techniques, from centuries-old morphological stomach analysis to recent molecular techniques. Given the difficulties and limitations of direct analysis in marine animals, here we review DNA-based methods of marine vertebrate diet analysis, examining the proliferation of studies over the last two decades. We identify a keystone taxon, sea turtles, where DNA-based approaches have had limited use, but offer great potential for characterising diet across species, life stages and regions. We show that contemporary molecular techniques can overcome some limitations of traditional methods based on morphological identification, such as the ability to identify rapidly digested food items. We report on the development of DNA metabarcoding protocols that enable simultaneous identification of many diet item sequences from heterogeneous samples. DNA metabarcoding can increase taxonomic resolution, improve the identification of certain items (e.g., gelatinous organisms), and increase the comprehensiveness of diet characterisation, particularly in combination with other techniques. However, careful methodological development and finer optimisation of metabarcoding protocols (e.g., appropriate primer selection, blocking of host DNA amplification) are necessary to improve results. Combination approaches to sea turtle dietary analysis and further experimentation with metabarcoding methodology will help to characterise variations and effectively monitor shifts in diet composition in response to environmental changes such as rising sea temperatures and displacement to alternative foraging grounds.
published_date 2025-10-01T05:31:43Z
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