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Large-scale eDNA metabarcoding survey reveals marine biogeographic break and transitions over tropical north-western Australia
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Large-scale eDNA metabarcoding survey reveals marine biogeographic break and transitions over tropical north-western Australia

Katrina West, Michael J. Travers, Michael Stat, Euan S. Harvey, Zoe T. Richards, Joseph D. DiBattista, Stephen J. Newman, Alastair Harry, Craig L. Skepper, Matthew Heydenrych, …
Diversity & Distributions, Vol.27(10), pp.1942-1957
2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13228
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Large-scale eDNA metabarcoding survey reveals marine biogeographic break and transitions over tropical north-western Australia1.19 MBDownloadView
Published (Version of Record)CC BY V4.0,  Open Access
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13228View
Published (Version of Record) Open

Abstract

Biodiversity & Conservation Ecology Environmental Sciences & Ecology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology
Aim Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has demonstrated its applicability as a highly sensitive biomonitoring tool across small spatial and temporal scales in marine ecosystems. However, it has rarely been tested across large spatial scales or biogeographical barriers. Here, we scale up marine eDNA metabarcoding, test its ability to detect a major marine biogeographic break and evaluate its use as a regional biomonitoring tool in Australia. Location North-western Australia (NWA). Methods We applied metabarcoding assays targeting the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and CO1 genes to 284 surface seawater eDNA samples collected from 71 mid-shelf, inshore, coastal and nearshore estuarine sites over 700 km of the NWA coastline. Results Metabarcoding detected a wide range of bony fish (404 taxa), elasmobranchs (44) and aquatic reptiles (5). We detected bioregional and depth differentiation within inshore bony fish communities. These findings support the presence of a marine biogeographic break, which is purported to occur in the vicinity of Cape Leveque, demarcating the border between the Kimberley and Canning bioregions. Inshore bony fish and elasmobranch communities, as well as coastal bony fish assemblages, were additionally found to differ between the South and North Kimberley regions suggesting previously unrecognized subregional differentiation amongst these taxa. The overall compositional data have been used to update distribution information for a number of endangered, elusive and data-deficient taxa, including sawfish (family: Pristidae), northern river shark (Glyphis garricki) and wedgefish (genus: Rhynchobatus). Main conclusions eDNA metabarcoding demonstrated a high level of sensitivity that was able to discern fine-scale patterns across the large-scale, remote and oceanographically complex region of North-western Australia. Importantly, this study highlights the potential of integrating broad-scale eDNA metabarcoding alongside other baseline surveys and long-term monitoring approaches, which are crucial for the sustainable management and conservation of marine biodiversity in this unique marine region.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.64 Phylogenetics & Genomics
3.64.2564 Environmental DNA
Web Of Science research areas
Biodiversity Conservation
Ecology
ESI research areas
Environment/Ecology
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