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Combining environmental DNA and species distribution modeling to evaluate reintroduction success of a freshwater fish.

  • Riaz M Conservation Genetics Group, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany.
  • Kuemmerlen M Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 133, 8600, Duebendorf, Switzerland.
  • Wittwer C Conservation Genetics Group, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany.
  • Cocchiararo B Conservation Genetics Group, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany.
  • Khaliq I Department of Zoology, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.
  • Pfenninger M LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  • Nowak C Conservation Genetics Group, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, 63571, Gelnhausen, Germany.
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  • 2019-11-05
Published in:
  • Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America. - 2020
Alburnoides bipunctatus
Water Framework Directive
environmental DNA
monitoring
noninvasive species
reintroduction
species distribution models
Animals
Ecosystem
Environmental DNA
Fishes
Fresh Water
Germany
English Active species reintroduction is an important conservation tool when aiming for the restoration of biological communities and ecosystems. The effective monitoring of reintroduction success is a crucial factor in this process. Here, we used a combination of environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques and species distribution models (SDMs) to evaluate the success of recent reintroductions of the freshwater fish Alburnoides bipunctatus in central Germany. We built SDMs without and with eDNA presence data to locate further suitable reintroduction sites and potentially overlooked populations of the species. We successfully detected eDNA of A. bipunctatus at all reintroduction sites, as well as several adjacent sites mostly in downstream direction, which supports the success of reintroduction efforts. eDNA-based species detection considerably improved SDMs for A. bipunctatus, which allowed to identify species presence in previously unknown localities. Our results confirm the usefulness of eDNA techniques as standard tool to monitor reintroduced fish populations. We propose that combining eDNA with SDMs is a highly effective approach for long-term monitoring of reintroduction success in aquatic species.
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  • English
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hybrid
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/93192
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