Scientists Stumble Into Vast Resource to Save Species
Molecular biologists have discovered that thousands of air-quality monitoring stations around the world have been recording more than just air pollution and dust, they are also collecting biodiversity data. Their findings are published in Current Biology.
Environmental DNA, or eDNA, are the traces of life and death left by organisms in the air, water, soil, and snow. Sources of eDNA can include feces, shed skin and hair, mucous, gametes, and eventually, carcasses.
The stuff floating around in the air is of particular interest because there are so many air-quality monitoring stations around the world that have been in operation for decades. Until now, no one had considered tapping into this treasure trove of data on birds, bees, plants, fungi, insects, and mammals across the globe.
The current research revealed more than 180 species that left their “trail” in just two air monitoring sites in the UK. They include “charismatic species such as badgers, dormice, little owls, and smooth newts, species of special conservation interest such as hedgehogs and songbirds, trees including ash, linden, pine, willow, and oak, plants like yarrows, mallows, daisy, nettles, and grasses, arable crops such as wheat, soybean, and cabbage.”
All that information can be very useful for ecologists trying to save endangered and threatened species. For example, if an invasive species is detected in the air, it could give conservationists a leg up on controlling its spread before it takes over an ecosystem.
“The potential of this cannot be overstated. It could be an absolute game changer for tracking and monitoring biodiversity,” says Joanne Littlefair of Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the study. “Almost every country has some kind of air pollution monitoring system or network, either government owned or private, and in many cases both. This could solve a global problem of how to measure biodiversity at a massive scale.”
We can expect that eDNA will be increasingly used as a conservation tool, and it’s not only detected in the air. There’s plenty of it in water and soil, too.
Photo credit: Beth Zaiken / BBC
