Mr Joshua Newton1, Assoc Prof Phillip Bateman2, Mr Matthew Heydenrych1, Dr Mahsa Mousavi-Derazmahalleh1, Dr Paul Nevill1
1Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory, Curtin University , Bentley, Australia, 2Behavioural Ecology Lab, Curtin University , Bentley, Australia
Tree hollows are essential for many vertebrate species. Globally, old hollow-bearing trees are in decline resulting in many dependent species being under threat. It is therefore imperative that vital hollow-bearing trees are preserved, but it is logistically difficult to rapidly determine which hollows are being used and by which taxa. Here, we investigate the efficacy of eDNA metabarcoding as a survey tool for vertebrate hollow users. We compared the identity and richness of hollow-inhabiting vertebrate taxa using eDNA metabarcoding of both sediment from the tree hollows, and material collected using roller swabs. Samples were collected from within both an urban remnant and a relatively undisturbed forested area of South-West Western Australia. We detected a wide range of vertebrate taxa, including cryptic species, while also providing ecologically informative data, such as hollow use by invasive species within the study areas. Our results showed variation in the species detected between methods, with the roller swab method detecting a greater number of species and a higher mean species richness per sample than hollow sediment did. The species detected from both methods did not perfectly overlap, highlighting the value of using multiple methods or substrates to detect a greater number of taxa. Our results suggest eDNA metabarcoding from tree hollow samples offers a sensitive and resource efficient method of monitoring vertebrate hollow users, if enough hollows are sampled. This provides not only a broad biodiversity assessment tool, but also an effective method for detecting taxa that may be elusive using other methods.
Biography:
Josh is a PhD candidate within the Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) Laboratory at Curtin University. He has recently begun his PhD focusing on the Development and application of environmental DNA (eDNA) for biomonitoring of terrestrial fauna. Josh recently competed his honours developing methodologies to monitor vertebrate tree hollow users from eDNA.