In:
Scientific Reports, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 10, No. 1 ( 2020-12-08)
Kurzfassung:
Subterranean ecosystems are understudied and challenging to conventionally survey given the inaccessibility of underground voids and networks. In this study, we conducted a eukaryotic environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding survey across the karst landscape of Christmas Island, (Indian Ocean, Australia) to evaluate the utility of this non-invasive technique to detect subterranean aquatic ‘stygofauna’ assemblages. Three metabarcoding assays targeting the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear 18S genes were applied to 159 water and sediment samples collected from 23 caves and springs across the island. Taken together, our assays detected a wide diversity of chordates, cnidarians, porifera, arthropods, molluscs, annelids and bryozoans from 71 families across 60 orders. We report a high level of variation between cave and spring subterranean community compositions which are significantly influenced by varying levels of salinity. Additionally, we show that dissolved oxygen and longitudinal gradients significantly affect biotic assemblages within cave communities. Lastly, we combined eDNA-derived community composition and environmental (water quality) data to predict potential underground interconnectivity across Christmas Island. We identified three cave and spring groups that showed a high degree of biotic and abiotic similarity indicating likely local connectivity. This study demonstrates the applicability of eDNA metabarcoding to detect subterranean eukaryotic communities and explore underground interconnectivity.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
2045-2322
DOI:
10.1038/s41598-020-78525-6
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publikationsdatum:
2020
ZDB Id:
2615211-3
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