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Bush A, Compson Z, Rideout NK, Levenstein B, Kattilakoski M, Hajibabaei M, Monk WA, Wright MTG, Baird DJ. Replicate DNA metabarcoding can discriminate seasonal and spatial abundance shifts in river macroinvertebrate assemblages. Mol Ecol Resour 2023. [PMID: 36999614 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/01/2023]
Abstract
The delivery of consistent and accurate fine-resolution data on biodiversity using metabarcoding promises to improve environmental assessment and research. Whilst this approach is a substantial improvement upon traditional techniques, critics note that metabarcoding data are suitable for establishing taxon occurrence, but not abundance. We propose a novel hierarchical approach to recovering abundance information from metabarcoding, and demonstrate this technique using benthic macroinvertebrates. To sample a range of abundance structures without introducing additional changes in composition, we combined seasonal surveys with fish-exclusion experiments at Catamaran Brook in northern New Brunswick, Canada. Five monthly surveys collected 31 benthic samples for DNA metabarcoding divided between caged and control treatments. A further six samples per survey were processed using traditional morphological identification for comparison. By estimating the probability of detecting a single individual, Multi-Species Abundance Models infer changes in abundance based on changes in detection frequency. Using replicate detections of 184 genera (and 318 species) from metabarcoding samples, our analysis identified changes in abundance arising from both seasonal dynamics and the exclusion of fish predators. Counts obtained from morphological samples were highly variable, a feature that limited the opportunity for more robust comparison, and emphasizing the difficulty standard methods also face to detect changes in abundance. Our approach is the first to demonstrate how quantitative estimates of abundance can be made using metabarcoding, both among species within sites, as well as within species among sites. Many samples are required to capture true abundance patterns, particularly in streams where counts are highly variable, but few studies can afford to process entire samples. Our approach allows study of responses across whole communities, and at fine taxonomic resolution. We discuss how ecological studies can use additional sampling to capture changes in abundance at fine resolution, and how this can complement broad-scale biomonitoring using DNA metabarcoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Bush
- Lancaster Environment Centre, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
| | - Z Compson
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
- Department of Biological Sciences, Advanced Environmental Research Institute, University of North Texas, Denton, USA
| | - N K Rideout
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
| | - B Levenstein
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
| | - M Kattilakoski
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
- Department of Microbiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - M Hajibabaei
- Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - W A Monk
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
| | - M T G Wright
- Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - D J Baird
- Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada
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Alexander AC, Levenstein B, Sanderson LA, Blukacz-Richards EA, Chambers PA. How does climate variability affect water quality dynamics in Canada's oil sands region? Sci Total Environ 2020; 732:139062. [PMID: 32417553 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2020] [Revised: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 04/26/2020] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
In Canada's oil sands region, classic boreal hydrology (i.e., winter low flow followed by peaks during spring freshet and then summer flow recession) combined with erosion of both natural and anthropogenically-exposed bitumen results in seasonal and inter-annual variability in stream water chemistry. Using data collected from all seasons over three years (2012-2015), we investigated the mechanisms driving spatial and temporal change in the concentration of 26 water quality parameters for six rivers draining Canada's oil sands region. Mantel tests showed a strong spatial aggregation of climatic drivers (average daily precipitation, accumulated precipitation, snow water equivalent) associated with west versus east discharge patterns. Wavelet analysis highlighted unique watershed attributes, in particular the importance of developed area in lowering responsiveness to seasonal precipitation. Concentrations of most chemical parameters (20 of 23) showed distinct temporal patterns that were correlated with seasonal changes in hydrology which, in turn, were related to changes in weather. Comparison of concentrations observed in this study with those reported in the scientific literature for the same watersheds showed 81% of comparisons differed significantly. This was likely due to the short duration of previous field campaigns and thus the sampling of a very narrow window of the annual streamflow regime.
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Affiliation(s)
- A C Alexander
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fredericton, NB, Canada; Department of Biology and Canadian Rivers Institute, 10 Bailey Drive, PO Box 4400, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada.
| | - B Levenstein
- Department of Biology and Canadian Rivers Institute, 10 Bailey Drive, PO Box 4400, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
| | - L A Sanderson
- Department of Biology and Canadian Rivers Institute, 10 Bailey Drive, PO Box 4400, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
| | - E A Blukacz-Richards
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada Centre for Inland Waters, 867 Lakeshore Road, PO Box 5050, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada
| | - P A Chambers
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada Centre for Inland Waters, 867 Lakeshore Road, PO Box 5050, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada
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Abstract
The interrelationship between diet, blood pressure and the acceptability of salt solutions was examined. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed high carbohydrate (5% corn oil), all unsaturated fat (20% corn oil) or all saturated fat (20% coconut oil) diets containing either basal (0.15% NaCl) or high (8.0% NaCl) levels of salt. Systolic blood pressure was determined indirectly using an electro-sphygmomanometer. Percent acceptance was determined using a two-bottle preference test. Results from this experiment suggest that postingestional feedback mechanisms rather than blood pressure play an important role in determining the acceptability of salt solutions by the Sprague-Dawley rat.
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