Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types
ABSTRACT Due to the societal reliance on goods and services provided by river systems and their close proximity to settlements, few modern‐day rivers are without significant anthropogenic modifications. The natural river hydrology is often altered as a consequence of pumping water for flood alleviat...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Environmental DNA |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70060 |
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| author | Nathan P. Griffiths Jonathan D. Bolland Rosalind M. Wright Petr Blabolil James A. Macarthur Graham S. Sellers Bernd Hänfling |
| author_facet | Nathan P. Griffiths Jonathan D. Bolland Rosalind M. Wright Petr Blabolil James A. Macarthur Graham S. Sellers Bernd Hänfling |
| author_sort | Nathan P. Griffiths |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Due to the societal reliance on goods and services provided by river systems and their close proximity to settlements, few modern‐day rivers are without significant anthropogenic modifications. The natural river hydrology is often altered as a consequence of pumping water for flood alleviation, retaining water for irrigation, and modifying channels for navigation. In recent years, water pumping stations have been found to have several adverse impacts, including fish mortality (direct and indirect) and habitat fragmentation. More broadly, modern‐day river systems face a myriad of anthropogenic flow and channel modifications, with varying impacts on different fish life stages. To manage such risks in line with policy, knowledge of the overall fish community and priority species present is required. It is therefore important to understand the robustness of developing survey strategies across differently managed river systems. This study investigates the seasonal patterns of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding fish detections from water samples taken across three differently managed river types over a one‐year period. We observed some significant seasonal variation in detection rates and fish communities; however, this variation was not consistent among river types. Despite this, we found comparatively poor fish communities upstream of pumping stations all year round, with pumped catchments containing significantly fewer species than the adjacent main river channel and our regional control site. Finally, we highlight that seasonal variation in detectability for the overall fish community may not always reflect that of priority species. In our case, we found favorable European eel (Anguilla anguilla) detection in the summer months across all river types. It is therefore recommended that rather than focusing on overall detectability, policy‐driven targeted surveys should be designed with priority species ecology in mind. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5aa4ec00801a415c8a324d463d39776f |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2637-4943 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental DNA |
| spelling | doaj-art-5aa4ec00801a415c8a324d463d39776f2025-08-20T02:35:13ZengWileyEnvironmental DNA2637-49432025-05-0173n/an/a10.1002/edn3.70060Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River TypesNathan P. Griffiths0Jonathan D. Bolland1Rosalind M. Wright2Petr Blabolil3James A. Macarthur4Graham S. Sellers5Bernd Hänfling6Biological and Marine Sciences University of Hull Hull UKBiological and Marine Sciences University of Hull Hull UKEnvironment Agency Feering UKBiology Centre CAS Institute of Hydrobiology České Budějovice Czech RepublicInstitute for Biodiversity and Freshwater Conservation University of the Highlands and Islands Inverness UKBiological and Marine Sciences University of Hull Hull UKInstitute for Biodiversity and Freshwater Conservation University of the Highlands and Islands Inverness UKABSTRACT Due to the societal reliance on goods and services provided by river systems and their close proximity to settlements, few modern‐day rivers are without significant anthropogenic modifications. The natural river hydrology is often altered as a consequence of pumping water for flood alleviation, retaining water for irrigation, and modifying channels for navigation. In recent years, water pumping stations have been found to have several adverse impacts, including fish mortality (direct and indirect) and habitat fragmentation. More broadly, modern‐day river systems face a myriad of anthropogenic flow and channel modifications, with varying impacts on different fish life stages. To manage such risks in line with policy, knowledge of the overall fish community and priority species present is required. It is therefore important to understand the robustness of developing survey strategies across differently managed river systems. This study investigates the seasonal patterns of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding fish detections from water samples taken across three differently managed river types over a one‐year period. We observed some significant seasonal variation in detection rates and fish communities; however, this variation was not consistent among river types. Despite this, we found comparatively poor fish communities upstream of pumping stations all year round, with pumped catchments containing significantly fewer species than the adjacent main river channel and our regional control site. Finally, we highlight that seasonal variation in detectability for the overall fish community may not always reflect that of priority species. In our case, we found favorable European eel (Anguilla anguilla) detection in the summer months across all river types. It is therefore recommended that rather than focusing on overall detectability, policy‐driven targeted surveys should be designed with priority species ecology in mind.https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70060eelenvironmental DNAfishfreshwaterriversseasonal |
| spellingShingle | Nathan P. Griffiths Jonathan D. Bolland Rosalind M. Wright Petr Blabolil James A. Macarthur Graham S. Sellers Bernd Hänfling Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types Environmental DNA eel environmental DNA fish freshwater rivers seasonal |
| title | Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types |
| title_full | Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types |
| title_fullStr | Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types |
| title_short | Seasonal Changes in Fish eDNA Signal Vary Between Contrasting River Types |
| title_sort | seasonal changes in fish edna signal vary between contrasting river types |
| topic | eel environmental DNA fish freshwater rivers seasonal |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70060 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nathanpgriffiths seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT jonathandbolland seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT rosalindmwright seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT petrblabolil seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT jamesamacarthur seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT grahamssellers seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes AT berndhanfling seasonalchangesinfishednasignalvarybetweencontrastingrivertypes |