Imperial College London
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ProfessorVincentSavolainen

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Professor of Organismic Biology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

v.savolainen CV

 
 
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Assistant

 

Ms Elisabeth Ahlstrom +44 (0)20 7594 2207

 
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Location

 

N.1-17MunroSilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Dunn:2017:10.1002/ece3.3316,
author = {Dunn, N and Priestley, V and Herraiz, A and Arnold, R and Savolainen, V},
doi = {10.1002/ece3.3316},
journal = {Ecology and Evolution},
pages = {7777--7785},
title = {Behaviour and season affect crayfish detection and density inference using environmental DNA},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3316},
volume = {7},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Although the presence/absence of aquatic invertebrates using environmental DNA (eDNA) has been established for several species, inferring population densities has remained problematic. The invasive American signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana), is the leading cause of decline in the UK's only native crayfish species, Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet). Methods to detect species at low abundances offer the opportunity for the early detection, and potential eradication, of P. leniusculus before population densities reach threatening levels in areas occupied by A. pallipes. Using a factorial experimental design with aquaria, we investigated the impacts of biomass, sex ratio, and fighting behavior on the amount of eDNA released by P. leniusculus, with the aim to infer density per aquarium depending on treatments. The amount of target eDNA in water samples from each aquarium was measured using the quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction. We show that the presence of eggs significantly increases the concentration of crayfish eDNA per unit of mass, and that there is a significant relationship between eDNA concentration and biomass when females are egg-bearing. However, the relationship between crayfish biomass and eDNA concentration is lost in aquaria without ovigerous females. Female-specific tanks had significantly higher eDNA concentrations than male-specific tanks, and the prevention of fighting did not impact the amount of eDNA in the water. These results indicate that detection and estimate of crayfish abundance using eDNA may be more effective while females are ovigerous. This information should guide further research for an accurate estimation of crayfish biomass in the field depending on the season. Our results indicate that detection and quantification of egg-laying aquatic invertebrate species using eDNA could be most successful during periods when eggs are developing in the water. We recommend that practitioners consider the reproductive cycle o
AU  - Dunn,N
AU  - Priestley,V
AU  - Herraiz,A
AU  - Arnold,R
AU  - Savolainen,V
DO  - 10.1002/ece3.3316
EP  - 7785
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 2045-7758
SP  - 7777
TI  - Behaviour and season affect crayfish detection and density inference using environmental DNA
T2  - Ecology and Evolution
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3316
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/50138
VL  - 7
ER  -
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