Miss Siobhan Evans1,2,3, Associate Professor Bastien Llamas1,2,3, Dr Jamie Wood1,2,3
1Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia, 2The Environment Institute, The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia, 3Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Biography:
Siobhan Evans completed her BSc Honours at the University of Adelaide, studying ancient DNA of krill from Southern Ocean marine sediments. She is now a PhD candidate at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA where she is exploring the role of climatic, environmental and mineralogical factors in preserving DNA within cave sediments and using DNA from cave sediments to investigate Australian biodiversity through time.
Abstract:
Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) deals with DNA preserved in sediments, i.e., solid matter, usually mineral, that is transported via wind, water or gravity to the site of deposition. The sedaDNA field continues to progress rapidly and generate significant new discoveries, accessing DNA preserved in sediments from marine, lacustrine, terrestrial and subterranean deposits in the northern hemisphere.
Caves are a growing focus of sedaDNA research as they can contain records of past faunal, floral and human diversity, yet we currently have a limited understanding of factors influencing long-term DNA preservation in cave sediments. To bridge this knowledge gap, we are studying the characteristics of sedaDNA from several caves in south-eastern Australia in conjunction with site factors such as age, thermal history, and sediment mineralogy.
The new insights gained will improve our understanding of sedaDNA taphonomy, allowing us to model theoretical age limits of sedaDNA preservation in the context of Australia and detect sedaDNA preservation hotspots. Ultimately, our findings will help reduce the time and cost associated with determining site suitability. The same data generated will be used to investigate how southeast Australian biodiversity has changed through time, offering a range of potential applications in areas such as conservation management and climate change resilience modelling. We will present preliminary results from the study.