At Palmyra Atoll, the fish-community environmental DNA signal changes across habitats but not with tides.
Kevin D LaffertyAna Elisa Garcia-VedrenneJohn P McLaughlinJasmine N ChildressMarisa F MorseChristopher L JerdePublished in: Journal of fish biology (2020)
At Palmyra Atoll, the environmental DNA (eDNA) signal on tidal sand flats was associated with fish biomass density and captured 98%-100% of the expected species diversity there. Although eDNA spilled over across habitats, species associated with reef habitat contributed more eDNA to reef sites than to sand-flat sites, and species associated with sand-flat habitat contributed more eDNA to sand-flat sites than to reef sites. Tides did not disrupt the sand-flat habitat signal. At least 25 samples give a coverage >97.5% at this diverse, tropical, marine system.