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Assessment of fish communities using environmental DNA: Effect of spatial sampling design in lentic systems of different sizes
Author(s) -
Zhang Shan,
Lu Qi,
Wang Yiyan,
Wang Xiaomei,
Zhao Jindong,
Yao Meng
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
molecular ecology resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.96
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1755-0998
pISSN - 1755-098X
DOI - 10.1111/1755-0998.13105
Subject(s) - lake ecosystem , environmental dna , biology , biodiversity , sampling (signal processing) , ecology , habitat , species evenness , river ecosystem , spatial distribution , freshwater fish , fish <actinopterygii> , sampling design , species diversity , fishery , statistics , population , demography , filter (signal processing) , sociology , computer science , computer vision , mathematics
Freshwater fish biodiversity is quickly decreasing and requires effective monitoring and conservation. Environmental DNA (eDNA)‐based methods have been shown to be highly sensitive and cost‐efficient for aquatic biodiversity surveys, but few studies have systematically investigated how spatial sampling design affects eDNA‐detected fish communities across lentic systems of different sizes. We compared the spatial patterns of fish diversity determined using eDNA in three lakes of small (SL; 3 ha), medium (ML; 122 ha) and large (LL; 4,343 ha) size using a spatially explicit grid sampling method. A total of 100 water samples (including nine, 17 and 18 shoreline samples and six, 14 and 36 interior samples from SL, ML and LL, respectively) were collected, and fish communities were analysed using eDNA metabarcoding of the mitochondrial 12S region. Together, 30, 35 and 41 fish taxa were detected in samples from SL, ML, and LL, respectively. We observed that eDNA from shoreline samples effectively captured the majority of the fish diversity of entire waterbodies, and pooled samples recovered fewer species than individually processed samples. Significant spatial autocorrelations between fish communities within 250 m and 2 km of each other were detected in ML and LL, respectively. Additionally, the relative sequence abundances of many fish species exhibited spatial distribution patterns that correlated with their typical habitat occupation. Overall, our results support the validity of a shoreline sampling strategy for eDNA‐based fish community surveys in lentic systems but also suggest that a spatially comprehensive sampling design can reveal finer distribution patterns of individual species.