Stream sleuths: using fish eDNA to determine shared catchment actions

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The project aims to unlock two significant but untapped resources for citizen science: the use of environmental DNA to detect species and the capacity of the National Trust (NT) as a major landowning and volunteering organisation. We propose a scoping study and co-designed pilot to bring these together. Environmental DNA (eDNA) are traces of DNA released into the environment by species. Sources of eDNA include secreted faeces, mucous, gametes, shed skin, hair and carcasses and these can be detected in samples of water or soil. The potential for eDNA to transform species recording and open it up to people with few or no traditional species identification skills is huge. So far, the most developed application is for fish and amphibians in aquatic environments where a simple water sample can be analysed to produce a list of species present and even provide some indication of relative proportions of different species. Initial work suggests non-specialists (anglers and schoolchildren) can collect adequate (uncontaminated) water samples that provide robust data of which species are present in a waterbody. There is an opportunity to get interested communities collecting information on what lives in their local river, lakes or pond in a way that was hitherto impossible (due to complicated and expensive survey methods or lack of species identification skills). We believe that being able to collect these data will enthuse people to find out more about the health of their local waters leading to further action either in getting more involved in data collection or in tackling issues to improve freshwaters. The use of an exciting and novel scientific tool could open up a pathway of engagement and direct action. By involving volunteers in the decision-making process and supporting them to identify local need, we believe participants will develop the confidence to share their skills with others. The National Trust is public-facing IRO and charity as well as large landowner (250,000ha) with ambitions to transform our land to be better for wildlife and to provide a wide range benefits of benefits to society. With 5.5million members and more than 60,000 volunteers the potential to reach and engage a large community with this work is considerable. Partnership working, and public engagement are embedded strongly across the NT's overall research programme. One of the NT's challenges is to monitor the effectiveness of the changes we are making across our estate but also to ensure that our monitoring effort plays a part in a wider UK network tracking the health of our landscapes. We strongly believe that citizen science, capitalising on our member, volunteer and visitor assets, could play an important role in this respect. Through this project we will bring together NT researchers, leading UK freshwater and eDNA scientists, citizen science specialists and a group of NT volunteers to explore the state of the art in terms of eDNA monitoring for freshwaters. Through a workshop and co-design process we will: Generate a series of recommendations for the development of a UK-wide citizen science project based on eDNA in freshwaters Develop and implement a co-designed pilot to test citizen science collection of eDNA species data (fish and amphibians) in a catchment where NT are leading a partnership project to improve and restore the freshwater environment (Upper Bure, Norfolk) Review lessons learned from the pilot to inform further development of eDNA based citizen science The project will lead directly to the development of a future funding bid for a national scale eDNA based citizen science research project.