Dr Josephine Hyde1
1Department Of Biodiversity, Conservation And Attractions, Kensington, Australia
Conservation agencies worldwide are tasked with protecting and recovering threatened biota and ecosystems and mitigating threatening processes. To effectively address this challenge, knowledge regarding the diversity, distribution, population and community trends of fauna, fungi and flora is vital. Newer technologies, such as eDNA, have the potential to allow more efficient collection of this data while also providing new insights into ecosystem functioning. However, as technology continues to advance there needs to be continued reassessments of the links between assessment methods and their underlying ecological principles. In addition, technologies often have a significant lag between the advancing science and translation into real world conservation programs. While eDNA has begun to be operationalised as part of the ecological monitoring tool kit, there are still numerous logistical challenges and considerations that need to be resolved, and some knowledge gaps filled before discoveries from eDNA research can be put to best use. At DBCA we are developing and testing how eDNA can be translated from aquatic and terrestrial research projects aimed at testing and refining the technology to a reliable tool that can be used to inform conservation decision-making, across a range of current and future survey and monitoring initiatives, particularly within an Australian context.
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