Project background, additional information, and contributing partners

Background

Effective conservation and management of freshwater biota during an era of rapid climate change, nonnative species invasions, and habitat loss, as well as widespread efforts to maintain, restore, and expand the distributions of at-risk species, requires precise information about species distributions across broad areas to guide decision-making. Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling of aquatic environments offers a reliable, cost-effective, and sensitive means of determining species presence if samples are collected following standardized field protocols (Carim et al. 2016a) and analyzed using rigorously designed eDNA assays (Wilcox et al. 2015a). Because of its advantages relative to traditional sampling techniques, eDNA sampling is being rapidly adopted to address questions about the distribution of species in headwater streams (McKelvey et al. 2016), the success of nonnative species removals, and the range-wide patterns of occupancy by individual species (Range-wide bull trout eDNA project). To foster these efforts, the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation (NGC) and Boise Spatial Streams Group (BSSG) partners with dozens of natural resource organizations throughout North America to provide technical assistance in the form of eDNA assay development and field sampling designs for fish, amphibians, crustaceans, mussels, mammals, and birds. Samples are collected at thousands of sites annually through those partnerships, which has created a large database that is rapidly growing in geographic extent and species diversity. To facilitate access to this database in spatially-explicit formats that maximize the use and sharing of eDNA sampling results, as well as the efficient collection of new samples, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation commissioned the Aquatic eDNAtlas project and website.

Frequently asked questions about protocols and submissions to the eDNAtlas can be found here. Additional information on eDNA sampling and the eDNAtlas project is given below, along with our partner organizations. There is a short video available on the protocol for collecting environmental DNA samples from streams.

Funding Grants

NFWF grant proposal for western U.S.: The aquatic eDNAtlas: a crowd-sourced, interagency environmental DNA database and high-resolution digital atlas of native and invasive fish distributions to support strategic conservation decisions

NFWF grant proposal for eastern U.S.: The national aquatic eDNAtlas and data exchange: A crowd-sourced environmental DNA database, website, and biodiversity archive of native and invasive species occurrence to facilitate strategic conservation and management investments

Recent presentations and popular articles

Isaak, D.J., M.K. Young. 2020. The Aquatic eDNAtlas: A next-generation database for species assessment and monitoring. Webinar. Recording of the webinar and transcript availalbe here.

Isaak, D.J., M.K. Young, C. McConnell, B.B. Roper, E.K. Archer, B. Staab, C. Hirsch, D.E. Nagel, M.K. Schwartz, and G.L. Chandler. 2018. Crowd-sourced databases as essential elements for Forest Service partnerships and aquatic resource conservation. Fisheries 43, DOI: 10.1002/fsh.10083.

Isaak, Daniel; Young, Michael. 2017. Delineating climate refugia for native aquatic species with big crowd-sourced databases. Mountain Views. December 2017: 3-6.

Miller, Sue; Carim, Kellie; Schwartz, Mike; Spaulding, Scott; Wilcox, Taylor. 2020. Black and white and shed all over: How eDNA analysis can help to answer your species questions. Science You Can Use Bulletin, Issue 40. Fort Collins, CO: Rocky Mountain Research Station. 11 p.

Schwartz, M., Penaluna, B., Wilcox, T. 2017. eDNA – Not just for fisheries biologists anymore. The Wildlife Society.

April 2020 Adobe Connect webinar - The Aquatic eDNAtlas: A next-generation database for species assessment and monitoring

2017 webinar: Putting aquatic species on the map: The eDNAtlas and Archive for aquatic taxa in Western North America

Science briefing paper: Detecting Rare Species Using Environmental DNA

A Splash of River Water Now Reveals the DNA of All Its Creatures. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Is 'eDNA' The Next Big Thing For Wildlife Science? Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Use of Aquatic eDNA for many species is spreading across the American West. AP Newswire.

eDNAtlas Alliance