Miss Christine Chivas1, Assoc. Prof Anthony Chariton1, Assoc. Prof Adam Stow1, Dr. Andrew Harford2, Dr. Tom Mooney2, Mr. David Loewensteiner2
1Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, Australia, 2Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientists (ERISS), Darwin, Australia
Did you know Australia currently holds the record for the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world? Since European settlement, there has been 39 recorded mammal extinctions, and currently a further 107 species are listed as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. To improve conservation outcomes for these species, it is paramount to gain a deeper insight into their occurrence and distribution. Traditionally, this has been done through monitoring techniques that rely on physical capture, scat collection or visual observation. However, such techniques have proven limited in their detection of species that are small, shy, cryptic or rare. With many threatened species displaying such traits, and with conservation resources often in limited supply, finding novel approaches that prove sensitive, while remaining cost and time efficient proves to be of utmost importance. Recently, the use of invertebrate derived DNA (iDNA) has shown promise through its sensitive detection of mammals, from ingested DNA of hematophagous, carrion or scat feeding invertebrates. This presentation seeks to provide an overview of the application of mosquito derived iDNA, for monitoring of vertebrates across the biodiverse Kakadu region. Throughout this project, iDNA from both individual and bulk extracted mosquitos will be amplified using an array of primers, targeting the 12S and 16S mt rDNA genes. The resulting metabarcoding data will be used to provide a deeper insight into the diversity of the region, occurrence and distribution of threatened species, all while guiding the development of iDNA for routine biomonitoring.
Biography:
Christine Chivas is a current PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Her PhD explores the application of mosquito derived iDNA for monitoring of terrestrial vertebrates in Kakadu, bringing together her background knowledge in both Molecular Ecology and Conservation Biology. Previous projects Christine has also worked on include the team coast project, which explores the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on tropical estuaries using eDNA methods.