High-throughput, DNA-based biodiversity assessment and detection for the environmental consultancy market

拟议中的住房开发项目是否包含受保护物种？采矿作业污染了分水岭吗？我们怎么能确定我们额外支付的有机水果来自自然友好型农场？哪种修复方法在修复棕地遗址方面最有效？采矿、石油和天然气、农业、水产养殖和建筑等对环境有很大影响的行业，需要在运营中测量“自然状况”，因为未能发现环境破坏是声誉风险和法律责任的来源，而成功保护环境可以提高声誉并导致溢价。然而，众所周知，环境调查很难进行，因为大自然是多样化的，大多数物种很难发现，特别是在反季节，也很难可靠和快速地识别。通过形态识别物种的标准方法消耗昂贵的现场收集时间，需要稀缺的分类学专业知识，容易出错，很难在长时间序列上标准化，最重要的是，几乎不可能向第三方核实，这阻碍了争端的解决。好消息是，世界上到处都是从原始所有者那里解放出来的DNA分子，它们的形式包括皮肤、粘液、唾液、精子、卵子、粪便、尿液、血液、分泌物、根、叶、水果、花粉和腐烂的身体，统称为环境DNA或EDNA。从植物材料和大量陷入困境的节肢动物(包括被寄生无脊椎动物窃取的血液中的哺乳动物和其他脊椎动物的DNA)的大量样本中收集和提取DNA也是直接的。最近的技术进步使得从EDNA和大量样本中读取生物多样性成为可能，给了我们数百到数千种动物、植物或真菌物种的清单，这些物种可以揭示受保护和/或不受欢迎的物种的存在。此外，物种名单的变化告诉我们环境何时变得更好或更坏，使我们能够检测污染事件，评估恢复干预的结果，并跟踪一般的自然状态。这些基于DNA的方法甚至比专业分类学家的速度快很多倍，并且在发现隐藏物种方面非常强大。因此，基于DNA的方法有望大大降低环境监测的成本，同时也增加了信息含量。这一组合将为能够利用这套新技术的企业带来竞争和声誉优势。2012年，全球环境咨询市场估计为274亿美元，英国市场估计为13.2亿GB，其中2.19亿GB用于环境影响评估(EIA)，较2011年增长11.9%。2014年，自然英格兰宣布将接受埃德纳证据来检测濒临灭绝的大冠螈(一种欧洲保护物种，在EIA中占很大比例)，这一消息鼓舞了咨询行业，因为埃德纳比目测调查更快、更可靠。我们建议成立一家名为NatureMetrics的公司，该公司将以白标的方式向环境咨询公司提供一系列基于DNA的环境服务。我们将利用FOF资金建立业务和实验室程序，以便我们能够以快速的周转时间和较低的成本可靠地处理大量样品。我们已经与四家英国环境咨询公司合作，我们的四家合作伙伴将在自己的产品线内营销这些服务，这将提高环境管理的整体效率。关键词：生物多样性；生物监测；元生物编码；有丝分裂基因组学；环境DNA；污染；淡水；受保护物种；传粉者；环境咨询；基础设施和建筑；采矿；石油和天然气；水质；农业；园艺；林业；保护组织

Does a proposed housing development contain protected species? Has a mining operation polluted a watershed? How can we be certain that the organic fruit we pay extra for is from nature-friendly farms? Which restoration treatment is most effective at restoring brownfield sites? Industries that have a large impact on the environment, such as mining, oil & gas, agriculture, aquaculture, and construction, need to measure the 'state of nature' as part of their operations, because failure to detect environmental damage is a source of reputational risk and legal liability, while success in protecting the environment can enhance reputation and result in premium pricing.However, environmental surveys are notoriously difficult to carry out because nature is diverse, and most species are difficult to detect, especially out of season, and to identify reliably and quickly. The standard method of identifying species by their morphologies consumes expensive field time for collections, requires scarce taxonomic expertise, is error-prone and difficult to standardise over long time series, and most importantly, is nearly impossible to verify to third parties, which impedes dispute resolution. The good news is that the world is permeated with DNA molecules that have been liberated from their original owners in the form of skin, mucous, saliva, sperm, eggs, faeces, urine, blood, secretions, roots, leaves, fruit, pollen, and rotting bodies, which is collectively known as environmental DNA or eDNA. It is also straightforward to collect and to extract DNA from bulk samples of plant material and mass-trapped arthropods (including the DNA of mammals and other vertebrates from blood that has been stolen by parasitic invertebrates). Recent technological advances have now made it feasible to read biodiversity from eDNA and bulk samples, giving us lists of hundreds to thousands of animal, plant, or fungal species, which can reveal the presence of protected and/or undesirable species. Also, changes in species lists tell us when the environment has changed for the better or for the worse, letting us detect pollution events, assess the outcome of restoration interventions, and track the state of nature in general. These DNA-based methods are many times faster than even expert taxonomists and are powerful at detecting hidden species. As a result, DNA-based methods promise to greatly reduce the costs of environmental monitoring while also increasing information content. This combination will confer competitive and reputational advantages on businesses able to take advantage of this new set of technologies. In 2012, the estimated global market for Environmental Consultancy was $27.4B, and the estimated UK market was £1.32B, of which £219M was spent on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), an 11.9% growth over 2011. In 2014, Natural England galvanised the consultancy sector by announcing that it would accept eDNA evidence to detect the endangered Great Crested Newt (a European Protected Species that features heavily in EIAs), due to eDNA's greater speed and reliability compared with visual surveys. We propose to start a company, NatureMetrics, that will provide a range of DNA-based environmental services on a white-label basis to environmental consultancies. We will use FoF funding to set up business and laboratory procedures so that we can reliably process large numbers of samples with rapid turnaround time and at lower costs. We have partnered with four UK environmental consultancies, and our four partners will market these services within their own product lines, which will increase the effectiveness of environmental management in general.Keywords: Biodiversity; biomonitoring; metabarcoding; mitogenomics; environmental DNA; pollution; freshwater; protected species; pollinators; environmental consultancy; infrastructure and construction; mining; oil & gas; water quality; agriculture; horticulture; forestry; conservation organisations