Plankton eDNA

Overview

I have been involved in several Australian Antarctic Science projects investigating the potential for eDNA monitoring of Southern Ocean plankton using water samples collected from ships.

We've worked alongside scientists from the Southern Ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey. This longterm survey collects plankton data from ships during regular transects across the Southern Ocean to Antarctic. Specimens are collected using an ingenious device (the Continuous Plankton Recorder) towed behind a ship and are identified under a microscope. Much of our focus is on developing DNA-based approaches to establish a similar oceanic plankton time-series.

In other projects working with Laurence Clarke and others, we also analysed eDNA data from a whole range of organisms, from bacteria to zooplankton, from water collected throughout the water column. Much of this work was done on the 2016 K-axis marine science voyage surveying the Southern Ocean off of East Antarctica (south of the Kerguelen Plateau).

Example publications

Suter L, Wotherspoon S, Kawaguchi S, King R, MacDonald A, Nester G, Polanowski AM, Raymond B, Deagle BE (2023) Environmental DNA of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba): measuring DNA fragmentation adds a temporal aspect to quantitative surveys. Environmental DNA  (PDF)

Suter L, Polanowski AM, Clarke LJ, Kitchener J, Deagle BE (2021) Capturing open ocean biodiversity: comparing environmental DNA metabarcoding to the continuous plankton recorder. Molecular Ecology 30:3140-3157  (PDF)

Clarke LJ, Bestley S, Bissett A, Deagle BE (2019) A globally distributed Syndiniales parasite dominates the Southern Ocean micro-eukaryote community near the sea-ice edge. ISME journal 13:734-737 (ReadOnly PDF)

Deagle BE, Clarke LJ , Kitchener JA, Polanowski AM, Davidson AT (2018) Genetic monitoring of open ocean biodiversity: an evaluation of DNA metabarcoding for processing continuous plankton recorder samples. Molecular Ecology Resources 18:391-406 (PDF)

Collaborators

Léonie Suter, Laurence Clarke and Andrea Polanowski (Australian Antarctic Division, Australia)

Georgia Nester (Curtin University, Australia)