Improving environmental effects biomonitoring in freshwater ecosystems: A comparison of morphology-based and DNA-based approaches

Federal Canadian regulations of the Fisheries Act require operating mines and pulp mills to undertake biodiversity monitoring every three years to assess potential environmental effects. Different groups of organisms have differential sensitivity to pollutants and other environmental factors, so communities (e.g., invertebrates) provide a rich source of information about the system’s health Identifying invertebrates using traditional microscopy-based methods is challenging. Diagnostic characters are typically only present in specific life stages of invertebrates (such as adult male insects); moreover, specimens can be damaged during collection, further complicating accurate identification. Microscopy-based identification methods are intensive and time-consuming and can be subject to human error. DNA-based identification strategies, including DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, can help to overcome the abovementioned limitations by directly analyzing the species’ genetic material. However, careful validation is needed before Environmental firms can routinely adopt the molecular methods in regular biomonitoring. The consistency and reliability of results are crucial if these methods are to be accepted more broadly by regulators and proponents outside the academic realm to assess the “health” of aquatic ecosystems. The current proposed research project focuses on the first large-scale direct comparison in Canada of commonly accepted quantitative invertebrate survey methods vs. novel DNA-based methods for species identification.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sarah Adamowicz;Robert H. Hanner

Student:

Partner:

Ecoreg Solutions

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Guelph

Program: