The use of eDNA as a tool to augment gill net sampling for fish community monitoring

Traditional monitoring of fish community using gillnets is a well-established standard but comes with biases associated with selectivity of net sizes as well as significantly mortality of caught fish. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is rapidly becoming the new standard in fish and wildlife monitoring because it is less susceptible to biases, and it eliminates animal mortality. The latter is obviously important for threatened species. Despite the benefits of eDNA for aquatic monitoring, much is still not known about the efficiency and accuracy of using eDNA to assess fish communities across the broad range of environmental conditions seen in nature. The proposed project aims to address this important shortcoming by assessing eDNA variability as a function of key environmental parameters such as type of freshwater system (lacustrine vs riverine), seasonality (fall vs spring), and water quality (e.g., turbidity, pH). The information gained will be instrumental for the assessment of eDNA as a relevant tool for fish community monitoring in Manitoba.

Faculty Supervisor:

Caleb Hasler;Jean-Pierre Desforges

Student:

Partner:

Manitoba Hydro

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services; Utilities

University:

University of Winnipeg

Program: