- Video
Uncovering estuary health with eDNA
eDNA metabarcoding offers a sensitive, cost-effective and fast way to detect nutrient enrichment effects in estuaries. Marine ecologist Dana Clark explains in this short video.
Research in two Nelson estuaries shows that environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding offers a sensitive, cost effective and fast way to detect nutrient enrichment effects.
eDNA are the tiny traces of DNA that organisms like shellfish, worms, and bacteria leave behind in estuaries. Studying these traces is an important and cost-effective tool to detect changes in ecosystems.
Lead author Dana Clark is a marine ecologist at Cawthron Institute and a PhD student at University of Waikato. She was part of our Tipping Points project team and worked alongside partners to better understand our estuaries using eDNA.
