Page 20: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2020)

Oceanographic Instrumentation eDNA Emerging

By Justin Manley

There is a new buzzword in the ocean versity (MURU) Marine Science and terey Bay Aquarium Research Institute science/sensing community. The word Policy Initiative. The executive sum- (MBARI) in California and the Sieben is eDNA, an abbreviation for environ- mary of this gathering made it clear: Lab at Dalhousie University in Nova mental DNA. This refers to DNA that “eDNA works. Get going.” Scotia. among others, have been work- can be extracted from environmental But what does that mean for technolo- ing to address the question. samples without ? rst isolating any target gists? How does this scienti? c method MBARI has been working in this do- organisms. In the maritime community translate into operational ocean ob- main for decades. Starting about 25 such samples are taken from water. All serving? Two research labs, The Mon- years ago, it conceived of “ecogenomic living organisms leave traces of DNA in their environments which is an indi- cator of their presence over time. This

DNA is released into the environment through the biological process of living animals or by the decomposition of dead organisms. eDNA is a complex mixture of traces that enables the detection of a species regardless of its life stage or gender. This is a powerful tool for un- derstanding the complex biological web of an ocean or coastal ecosystem.

While eDNA is potent, it is also ephemeral. Once released in the envi- ronment, the constituent DNA can be degraded by environmental factors.

Generally, cold and dry conditions re- sult in slow eDNA degradation. For ex- ample, in permafrost, eDNA can endure for hundreds or thousands of years. But in aquatic environments, the DNA re- leased by an organism can be detected for only a few days. Despite this, the ocean science community is eager to employ this relatively new tool. In late

November 2018 approximately 100 ocean scientists and stakeholders in- terested in marine eDNA assembled at

The Rockefeller University in New York

City for a conference sponsored by the

Monmouth University-Rockefeller Uni-

A ? eld-deployed micro? uidic sensor.

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