A novel environmental DNA detection approach for the wading birds Platalea leucorodia , Recurvirostra avosetta and Tring
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TECHNICAL NOTE
A novel environmental DNA detection approach for the wading birds Platalea leucorodia, Recurvirostra avosetta and Tringa totanus Robin Schütz1 · Ralph Tollrian1 · Maximilian Schweinsberg1 Received: 8 January 2020 / Accepted: 24 March 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Wading birds play an important role in coastal and wetland ecosystems. As a result of anthropogenic disturbances, numbers of wading birds have declined over the past years, and therefore, the monitoring of bird species is crucial to preserve their habitats and counteract this. Due to known limitations of conventional monitoring, molecular approaches are increasingly becoming complementary methods. Thus, we evaluated the potential of an environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring approach for wading birds. We developed three species-specific primer sets for wading birds targeting the COI region. After examining the primers in silico and on extracted bird DNA, the primers were used to successfully amplify eDNA from water samples. Keywords Wading birds · qPCR · eDNA · Avifauna monitoring · DNA Barcoding Wading birds live in endangered habitats which are threatened by anthropogenic impacts such as pesticide usage and habitat destruction caused by draining wetlands or dike building (Quesnelle et al. 2013; Aronson et al. 2014; Bregman et al. 2014; Bowler et al. 2019). To better understand anthropogenic impacts on specific habitats, knowledge of existing avifauna is of scientific interest. Traditionally, monitoring of avifauna is a visual census of defined areas (Bibby et al. 2000). Considering the higher visibility and audibility of birds in comparison to other vertebrates and invertebrates, visual census has proven as a reliable monitoring method for avian species (Nichols et al. 2009). However, visual census has limitations, such as low visibility at night, dense vegetation and lack of distinct taxonomic identification skills (Ushio et al. 2018). To improve classical monitoring, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) has become a frequently applied methodology for non-invasive monitoring of aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates (Yoccoz 2012; Thomsen et al. 2012, 2016). A recent study suggested the potential application of eDNA based identification for avian species (Ushio et al. 2018). Here, we present a novel and complementary eDNA monitoring assay of three wading birds which is also species-specific. The three bird species investigated in * Maximilian Schweinsberg maximilian.Schweinsberg@ruhr‑uni‑bochum.de 1
Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
this study (Platalea leucorodia, Recruvirostra avosetta and Tringa totanus) are strictly protected under the European Birds Directive. Primers for the target species were designed in Geneious V. 11.2 (Kearse et al. 2012). Reference cytochrome-c-oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences of target and non-target species were downloaded from NCBI and aligned using MAFFT (Katoh and Standley 2013). Alignments were analyzed for intraspecific
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