220
Z. A. Danial Hariz and M. A. Noor Adelyna
ern anchovy has been documented in the California Coastal Ecosystem for more than
100 years and these two species are some strong drivers of trophic interactions in
the region. In the experiment that was done over a span of eight years (2008–2015),
collecting sea water, they found that more than 20 fish genera were detected in the
area where Engraulis mordax served as the dominant fish. Both Engraulis mordax
and Megaptera novaeangliae, humpback whale was also detected present in temporal patterns and this is similar to visual observations reported during the years from
2013 to 2015 compared to other years. This study is important because it establishes a
building capacity in biodiversity monitoring at the global scale using eDNA method.
The application of eDNA metabarcoding was also successful in an assessment
done in Coral Bay, Australia. In this study they focused on assessing the broad
potential of eDNA for auditing marine taxa and successfully analysed over 23 million sequences originating from 9L of filtered seawater. Using metabarcoding, data
was successfully assigned to 434 eukaryotic taxa (from the kingdom Animalia to
Protozoa) with 38 phyla, 88 classes, 186 orders and 287 families (Stat et al. 2017).
As this method can update species inventory from time to time, it can also be
applied as an early detection system in the detection of invasive species before it
spread and reduce the biodiversity of a certain area. For example, the invasion of
two species of Asian silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and the bighead carp,
Hypophthalmichthys nobilis in the the Missouri and Mississippi River systems (Klymus et al. 2015). By focusing on eDNA method, they were able to detect the early
presence of the two invasive species, locate their habitat and estimate the biomass
and timing as well as location of spawning events. Therefore, this can help in the
management and conservation of the river.
Examples of above studies were some of the benefit of eDNA metabarcoding in
highlighting species biomonitoring of many taxa. All of the studies were able to
provide the fundamental for a practical large-scale monitoring program operating
across the full range of commercialise, endangered, cryptic and invasive species for
sustainable management and conservation of coastal ecosystem.
6 Challenges of eDNA Metabarcoding in Operational
Biodiversity Research and Monitoring
Over this last decade, tremendous effort has been made toward implementation of
sustainable development in managing the biodiversity and conserving the ecosystem.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has the potential to provide massive
resource of biodiversity inventory, but it has its limitation. One of the challenges
is the requirement of multiple and disparate skills. However, this limitation can be
solved by the implementation of the Living Lab concepts by the organisation conducting the project. The Living Lab concepts enable the ecosystem manager to have
a platform in exchanging resources and expertise. If being applied in an academic
institution, for instance in a university, students and managers can be trained to
Z. A. Danial Hariz and M. A. Noor Adelyna
ern anchovy has been documented in the California Coastal Ecosystem for more than
100 years and these two species are some strong drivers of trophic interactions in
the region. In the experiment that was done over a span of eight years (2008–2015),
collecting sea water, they found that more than 20 fish genera were detected in the
area where Engraulis mordax served as the dominant fish. Both Engraulis mordax
and Megaptera novaeangliae, humpback whale was also detected present in temporal patterns and this is similar to visual observations reported during the years from
2013 to 2015 compared to other years. This study is important because it establishes a
building capacity in biodiversity monitoring at the global scale using eDNA method.
The application of eDNA metabarcoding was also successful in an assessment
done in Coral Bay, Australia. In this study they focused on assessing the broad
potential of eDNA for auditing marine taxa and successfully analysed over 23 million sequences originating from 9L of filtered seawater. Using metabarcoding, data
was successfully assigned to 434 eukaryotic taxa (from the kingdom Animalia to
Protozoa) with 38 phyla, 88 classes, 186 orders and 287 families (Stat et al. 2017).
As this method can update species inventory from time to time, it can also be
applied as an early detection system in the detection of invasive species before it
spread and reduce the biodiversity of a certain area. For example, the invasion of
two species of Asian silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and the bighead carp,
Hypophthalmichthys nobilis in the the Missouri and Mississippi River systems (Klymus et al. 2015). By focusing on eDNA method, they were able to detect the early
presence of the two invasive species, locate their habitat and estimate the biomass
and timing as well as location of spawning events. Therefore, this can help in the
management and conservation of the river.
Examples of above studies were some of the benefit of eDNA metabarcoding in
highlighting species biomonitoring of many taxa. All of the studies were able to
provide the fundamental for a practical large-scale monitoring program operating
across the full range of commercialise, endangered, cryptic and invasive species for
sustainable management and conservation of coastal ecosystem.
6 Challenges of eDNA Metabarcoding in Operational
Biodiversity Research and Monitoring
Over this last decade, tremendous effort has been made toward implementation of
sustainable development in managing the biodiversity and conserving the ecosystem.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has the potential to provide massive
resource of biodiversity inventory, but it has its limitation. One of the challenges
is the requirement of multiple and disparate skills. However, this limitation can be
solved by the implementation of the Living Lab concepts by the organisation conducting the project. The Living Lab concepts enable the ecosystem manager to have
a platform in exchanging resources and expertise. If being applied in an academic
institution, for instance in a university, students and managers can be trained to