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Copyright

Collin J. Closek; Louw Claassens; Helen J. Killeen;

Published On

2025-01-30

Page Range

pp. 189–202

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

12. Modern marine conservation using environmental nucleic acids (eDNA and eRNA)

Collin J. Closek, Louw Claassens, and Helen J. Killeen. Over the last 10+ years, rapid increases in technological approaches to the assessment of environmental DNA (eDNA), and even more rapid declines in costs for sampling and sequencing eDNA and eRNA, have opened a whole new door for employing this amazing molecular technology to assess biodiversity and dynamics. Closek et al. walk us through these developments and point to how these ever more available methods could accelerate key research and allow many scholars and practitioners to address questions that were previously inaccessible. Research into environmental DNA opens new fundamental science doors and allows us to probe key conservation issues with speed and accuracy. The authors detail the current methods and point to potential future applications.

Contributors

Collin Closek

(author)
Staff Scientist at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University

Dr. Collin Closek is Staff Scientist at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. His research focuses on optimizing molecular and computational tools to address ecological and evolutionary questions. He has published in the areas of environmental change, ocean health, biodiversity, disease, eDNA, -omics, and aquaculture. He enjoys exploring and teaching about the natural world, its diversity, complexities, and the challenges faced by our environment.

Louw Claassens

(author)
Research Associate at Rhodes University

Dr. Louw Claassens works at the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) as a Science Officer and Researcher for the Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS). She completed her PhD in marine biology in 2017 from Rhodes University, South Africa. She is developing an Action Recovery Plan for the Critically Endangered estuarine pipefish using environmental DNA (eDNA), to monitor this rare and cryptic species. Her experience with eDNA is useful for her work with PNMS research since PICRC is collaborating with Stanford University to assess biodiversity in the PNMS using eDNA.

Helen J. Killeen

(author)

Dr. Helen J. Killeen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Farallon Institute and a coastal ecologist studying the influence of climate change and human activity on the distribution and demographics of marine species. She is passionate about using science to identify and improve promising approaches to conservation that lead to healthy ecosystems and human communities.