Ms Allyson Malpartida1
1Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
Biography:
Allyson Malpartida is currently a PhD candidate at the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL), Charles Darwin University. Her research interests include the development and application of genomics-based methods to identify and understand the terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity following ecosystem restoration.
Abstract:
Genomics-based assessment has the potential to fundamentally change how we survey biodiversity. Genetic techniques such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and metabarcoding are now widely used for biodiversity monitoring surveys, with several studies demonstrating that eDNA and metabarcoding can detect species equally well or better than traditional visual survey methods. However, in certain environments and across taxa groups, such as terrestrial environments and invertebrates, this remains to be validated. A key challenge with eDNA detections in terrestrial environments is determining an effective sampling strategy, which considers where eDNA is likely to be deposited by the target taxa, the effect of the substrate (i.e., soil) on detectability and ease of sampling. To ensure that species detection results are reliable, it is imperative to develop and validate molecular assays to minimize the potential for false negative and positive results.
My own research is assessing and validating these genomics approaches to the monitoring of terrestrial invertebrates as bioindicators of ecosystem restoration in the Australian seasonal tropics. It focuses on the rehabilitation of one of the world’s largest uranium mines, located adjacent to World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park. Rehabilitation aims to produce sufficiently similar ecosystems for the land to be incorporated back into the Park, and ants and termites have been identified as bioindicators of rehabilitation success. Here, I will present on the results of my field studies to evaluate to what extent eDNA and DNA metabarcoding of ants and termites can be used to assess variation in communities across fire treatments and minesite rehabilitation.