Monitoring for biodiversity using environmental DNA

Found in the air, water and soil, research teams at Imperial led by Professor Vincent Savolainen and Professor Alfried Vogler, have used eDNA techniques to transform ecological monitoring. The use of eDNA can be used to detect many species at once or a single species, which would otherwise be hard to spot using conventional monitoring techniques. Novel-DNA based approaches use high-sensitivity assays and metagenomics to monitor different animal populations through time.

Imperial researchers optimised existing assays and helped to roll them out to ecological services industries. This eventually led to the formation of a successful start-up company, NatureMetrics, which was co-founded by Imperial and currently has over 30 staff.

So far, the research has been used to monitor vulnerable shark populations with the Zoological Society of London, otters in Bornean rivers, and bee populations in the UK. NatureMetrics is now a central part of the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, conducted by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.