Okinawa Churashima Foundation Research Center (Motobu, Okinawa) in collaboration with the Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba and a research team from the University of Hyogo have detected 291 fish species from 11 liters of seawater collected from 11 different places in the lagoon off the coast of Bise Village, Motobu, Okinawa. Metabarcoding was used to identify the environmental DNA (eDNA) of fish species contained in the seawater. Results from this research shows that metabarcoding is effective in areas of coral reefs with highly diverse species, which indicates monitoring fish species in coral reef areas is possible. This will aid in future conservation of the coral reef ecosystem in the Ryukyu Islands.

This technology was developed five years ago by research conducted by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, and is being now used around the globe. This is the world’s first case of this technique being used in a coral reef area.

Authors

Shin-ichiro Oka, Hideyuki Doi, Kei Miyamoto, Nozomi Hanahara, Tetsuya Sado, Maksaki Miya

Title

Environmental DNA metabarcoding for biodiversity monitoring of a highly-diverse tropical fish community in a coral-reef lagoon: Estimation of species richness and detection of habitat segregation

Journal

Environmental DNA

Link

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/edn3.132