Assessment and Monitoring of Fish in Estuarine Systems Using eDNA.

Watts, Alison¹, Jeff Miller¹, Chris Peter², Jason Goldstein³, Thomas Grothues⁴, ¹University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, ²Great Bay NERR, Greenland, NH, ³Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, ME, ⁴Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, Tuckerton, NJ

DNA monitoring is becoming more common in estuarine assessment, and has great potential for standardized biological monitoring across sites and regions. We are working with the National Estuarine Research Reserves to collect eDNA data in coordination with existing long term water quality and fish monitoring programs. Sites include locations in Maine, New Hampshire and New Jersey and well as Florida, the Gulf coast and the Pacific coast. Samples are collected at 4-5 locations within each estuary, and processed using multiple primers to better detect fish species, and other co-occurring marine organisms. We seek to answer three questions posed by resource managers: How many species are detected by eDNA sampling in a given estuary? How does eDNA-based monitoring compare to traditional fish surveys? And what is the relative cost of these methods? Here we will present initial findings comparing eDNA fish surveys with expected species present in the New England sites, and potential uses of this data. We will also present our protocols and a discussion of tradeoffs between effort required to collect samples vs quality of results and number of species detected.