Groundbreaking DNA research at the Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, turns upside down our monitoring of nature - a schnapps glass of seawater contains DNA from all the lake's wildlife. An effective and inexpensive method that will be important to check on the diversity of nature.

Biodiversity is in serious decline, and experts worldwide is a nearly insurmountable challenge to explain this decline. Today endangered species monitored through time-consuming and costly studies, conducted by experts to find the animals where they live - methods which basically has not changed in a hundred years. But now, three scientists from Professor Eske Willerslev's Center of Excellence for GeoGenetics (Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen) led the way for the future of monitoring. It happens with a cover story in the prestigious scientific journal 'Molecular Ecology' where their startling results show that a new method can be used to monitor endangered species only from the DNA traces that animals leave in the environment.

Rubber boots vs. DNA

The research team behind the new studies is a PhD student Philip Francis Thomsen and Master's student Jos Kielgast and Lars L. Iversen, as across disciplines have documented this completely new type of monitoring method. By examining hundreds of different lakes and streams with both existing methods (biologists in rubber boots) and the new DNA-based method, documents the investigators that DNA detection is effective even when the animals are extremely scarce. - We have demonstrated that our DNA detection method works on a wide variety of rare animal species living in freshwater. They leave all DNA traces in the environment that can be detected in very small water samples from their habitats. In the water samples we have found DNA from animals as diverse as the otter to the jeweler says Philip Francis Thomsen.

The DNA molecules follow the amount of animals

The study also shows that there is a clear relationship between the amount of DNA in the environment, and the density of animals in a given area. Thus, it appears that the new DNA detection method can be used to estimate population sizes. This is essential for monitoring of rare animals, where you often want to know if the population is large or small. - The UN has agreed to stop the decline in biodiversity, but a prerequisite is that you can do proper status of the species. Here, the new method will make it cheaper and faster to find the places where the endangered species and thus prioritize efforts for the benefit of nature - both at home and in the rest of the world, says Jos Kielgast. The new discoveries show that DNA traces found throughout the aquatic environment. The researchers behind the study believe that in principle, the method can also be used in many contexts other than in connection with endangered species or biodiversity monitoring. Scientists believe for example, that it will be possible to fishing quotas in the future can be estimated from DNA traces rather than catches. Source: KU