The Boreal forest. Source: Kablammo
The Boreal forest is a huge part of Canada and the world. It is important because this forest stores carbon, purifies water and air and regulates climate. Keeping tabs on the forest’s health has been a painstaking and time-consuming undertaking. That is, until now.
Cutting-edge DNA metabarcoding technology, developed by the University of Guelph, can help speed up and improve the monitoring process, according to a new study.
"We get a lot more information out of DNA, and we were able to reproduce the data and the interpretations of the data that the standard morphology approach provided," said study co-author Mehrdad Hajibabaei, a professor at University of Guelph’s Department of Integrative Biology.
Researchers compared use of advanced DNA meta-barcoding technology—identifying DNA from many aquatic organisms at once—with a hands-on identification of invertebrate specimens, used for decades to assess ecosystem biodiversity.
Accurate and quick information about the boreal ecosystem has never been more urgently needed. Rising temperatures in the boreal region are leading to degradation of permafrost, as well as more intense droughts and wildfires. Climate change is causing wildfires to burn more fiercely, which pumps more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Federal scientists have been challenged by the sheer volume of bio-monitoring needed for Canada’s forest integrity program.
"They need to assess the health of this forest, and one way to do that is to look at the presence of invertebrates in the streams,” said Hajibabaei.
Stream health is an indicator of overall forest health and biodiversity. The time-tested and time-consuming approach was to manually collect specimens by hand and then identify indicator organisms.
"Natural Resources Canada wanted to get into using the approach—DNA metabarcoding—that my lab has been researching for quite some time. They approached us and we initiated this collaboration. The importance of this work is both in terms of taking this approach into a real-world scenario and helping to address the needs of Canadian Forest Service for timely monitoring,” Hajibabaei said.
Metabarcoding is quick and highly effective at detecting many different aquatic organisms in the water.
Identifying invertebrates manually takes time and requires experts whose results may not always be consistent.
Another important aspect of the work is that is can be applied to an environmental gradient, measuring fluctuations in conditions based on various stressors and processes.
The study involved scientists from U of G’s Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and Natural Resources Canada’s Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
The study calls metabarcoding, “a potentially transformative approach to biomonitoring, biodiversity discovery and ecosystem health assessments.”
The findings from this study allowed Natural Resources Canada to be more confident in DNA monitoring.
"Obviously if they want to mitigate any type of impact, faster and higher throughput approaches are always in demand," said Hajibabaei.
A paper on this study was published in Scientific Reports.
