How sniffing out DNA can help save animals from extinction

(Photo by Anthony Anthony via Pexels)

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Sniffing out DNA in the air may save endangered animals from extinction, according to new research.

High-tech devices that monitor pollution can identify species - hundreds of meters away.

They pick up floating particles of skin, saliva and hair - even after they have left the area.

Thousands of ambient air quality stations around the world are unwittingly collecting biodiversity data.

They provide a ready-made infrastructure for conservationists. The unique technique requires no further evidence - such as a footprint.

Corresponding author, Dr. Elizabeth Clare of York University in Toronto, said: "One of the single biggest issues facing the planet today is the accelerating loss of biodiversity.

"This could be a treasure trove of biodiversity data. What we found by analyzing filters from these monitoring stations is astonishing. In just two locations, we found eDNA evidence for more than 180 different plants and animals."

The international team set up a test at an air quality station in London outside a large urban park, collecting samples for an hour, a day and a week, and compared them to eight-month-old samples from a public station in Scotland.

(Photo by Alotrobo via Pexels)

Dr. Clare, who carried out the analysis, said: "We were surprised by the diversity of life we were able to survey with one approach, almost unheard in this field of science.

"In these two locations, we simultaneously detected the eDNA of 34 bird and 24 mammal species, a wide variety of insects, crops, pathogenic fungus, lovely wildflowers, ornamental garden plants and grasses.

"We found species of interest, such as hedgehogs, along with badgers, deer, dormice, little owls, smooth newts, songbirds and 80 different kinds of woodland trees and plants – oak, linden, ash, pine – it was all there collected on these tiny filters. It's unbelievably exciting."

In the last 50 years, more than two-thirds of wildlife has disappeared through habitat loss, over-exploitation and man-made climate change.

Cutting-edge tools are already used to detect eDNA (environmental DNA) in aquatic ecosystems. It was not thought possible on land.

First author, Dr. Joanne Littlefair of Queen Mary University of London, said: "The potential of this cannot be overstated. It could be an absolute game-changer for tracking and monitoring biodiversity.

"Almost every country has some kind of air pollution monitoring system or network, either government owned or private, and in many cases both. This could solve a global problem of how to measure biodiversity at a massive scale."

Until now, no one had considered air quality monitoring stations could be storing eDNA information on birds, bees, ticks, fungi, insects, plants and mammals - as a byproduct of their regular function.

It opens the door to measuring biodiversity on an unprecedented scale.

Air quality stations could track biodiversity across the planet and tap into the decades of historic eDNA data on filters squirreled away for years.

Governments, scientists and environmental agencies have called for precisely this - a large, standard method in real-time.

The discovery that these air monitoring stations could be collecting eDNA is even more surprising because they may have been quietly doing this all along.

Dr. James Allerton, of the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) who operate air quality sampling grids, said: "We were routinely collecting particulate matter looking to measure pollutants in air.

"But when we saw the work of Clare and Littlefair, we realised maybe we were sitting on something much more valuable."

(Photo by Mathew Schwartz via Unsplash)

It represents a mechanism to repeatedly measure biodiversity across entire countries every day, every week at thousands of locations.

Principle scientist Andrew Brown, who operates the network at NPL, said: "The beauty of the idea is we are making use of something that already exists.

"If networks of air samplers around the world are all collecting similar material - just as a part of their regular functioning - it is an incredible resource."

The researchers are now trying to preserve as many samples as possible with eDNA in mind.

Dr. Clare said: "We do not yet know the true value of these samples, but as they are collected, they could provide an unprecedented view of our natural world.

"The scale of repeated samples could give us the elusive biodiversity time series data and the ability to measure terrestrial species dynamics in a high-resolution form never considered for biodiversity monitoring before."

The recent World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report revealed there has been a 69 percent decline in wildlife populations since 1970.

Added Dr. Littlefair says: "It will require a global effort to collect and evaluate these samples, but this is an extraordinary opportunity to take advantage of a pre-existing, global infrastructure that has been collecting standardized eDNA data for decades and until now, we simply haven't realized the resource existed."

Originally published on talker.news, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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