Miss Pame Olmedo-rojas1, Dr. Gert-Jan Jeunen2, Dr. Miles Lamare1, Dr. Johanna Turnbull3, Dr. Aleks Terauds4, Dr. Neil Gemmell2, Dr. Ceridwen Fraser1
1Department of Marine Science, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia, 4Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Australia
Understanding the drivers of Antarctic biodiversity patterns is crucial if we are to mitigate the effects of rapid environmental change. Pressing questions remain largely unanswered including: where are biodiversity hotspots in Antarctica, and are Antarctic terrestrial populations biologically isolated or well connected? eDNA metabarcoding provides exciting new opportunities to address these and related questions. We are using eDNA analyses of soil, combined with spatial environmental analyses, to investigate the diversity of terrestrial biota over Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica. Here, we present results of eDNA metabarcoding analyses of soils from Stornes, East Antarctica, testing whether less cost- and time-consuming DNA sampling, DNA extraction and library preparation methods perform as well as more expensive and time-consuming methods to assess diversity from soil samples from Antarctica. Our findings show that comparatively similar OTU data sets can be retrieved using low volumes of starting material, in combination with time and cost-efficient extraction and library preparation methods. These results are particularly relevant for studies using highly valuable and hard to replace samples, such as those from Antarctica and other isolated places.
Biography:
I am using environmental DNA metabarcoding combined with spatial analyses to study the evolution of Antarctic terrestrial plants and animals. I am especially interested in exploring the biogeographic patterns of Antarctic organisms.