Marine eDNA as a Monitoring Tool for Rocky Shore Biodiversity Over Time (by Dina-Leigh Simons)
By Dina-Leigh Simons, Ph.D. student at University of Liverpool, UK, and 2023 eDNA Collaborative Microgrant recipient
The rocky shore is a habitat that most British people hold close to their hearts. It’s accessible for a family day out in the sun and hosts a treasure trove of wacky life that keeps the kids occupied all day long. However, I can guarantee most holidaymakers don’t know just how biodiverse these environments are, or the important role they play in understanding impacts of climate change.
One rocky shore could host hundreds of species that are uniquely adapted to both marine and terrestrial environments, most of which we wouldn’t normally be able to see. With environmental DNA (eDNA), we can take a deeper look into which species call the rocky shore home. As creatures go about their daily business, they shed their DNA into the surrounding water. As a molecular ecologist, I can scoop up this water and do some detective work to figure out what species are present.
Dina on a rocky shore in North Wales at 05:00 to catch the tides
The rocky intertidal is also one of the most sensitive ecosystems to environmental pressures. Many well-loved rocky species, such as limpets and barnacles, are indicators of climate change. With changing environments, these species shift where they live to match suitable conditions. Too hot? Time to head North where it’s cooler! Individuals that aren’t able to migrate easily often die when conditions become too extreme. This means the rocky shore landscape across the Northeast Atlantic can change over time, and my PhD hopes to disentangle these shifts.
Dina filtering eDNA water samples in Scotland
Visual surveys have long been used to understand how our shorelines morph with climate change. These surveys contribute to time series data because, as the name suggests, they are continued over long periods of time. For example, data from the MarClim project, which is a long-term intertidal time series linked to my project, spans over 50-years across 100 UK sites! My project sets out to test whether eDNA does a better or worse job at characterising rocky shore diversity than traditional visual surveys.
The micro grant from the eDNA Collaborative will enable me to learn how to use visual and eDNA intertidal data to forecast how rocky shores will morph in the future with climate change. Cool stuff, right?!
If you want to follow my academic journey, which I love to share with anyone who is willing to listen, check out all my social pages here.