Stream sleuths: using fish eDNA to determine shared catchment actions

该项目旨在为公民科学打开两个重要但尚未开发的资源：使用环境DNA来检测物种，以及国民信托(NT)作为主要土地所有者和志愿者组织的能力。我们提出了一项范围研究和共同设计的试点，将这些结合在一起。环境DNA(EDNA)是物种释放到环境中的DNA的痕迹。埃德纳的来源包括分泌的粪便、粘液、配子、脱落的皮肤、头发和身体，这些都可以在水或土壤的样本中检测到。Edna改变物种记录并向几乎没有传统物种识别技能的人开放的潜力是巨大的。到目前为止，最成熟的应用是用于水环境中的鱼类和两栖动物，可以对简单的水样进行分析，以产生存在的物种清单，甚至提供不同物种的相对比例的一些指示。初步工作表明，非专家(垂钓者和学龄儿童)可以收集足够的(未受污染的)水样，为水体中存在哪些物种提供可靠的数据。现在有机会让感兴趣的社区以一种迄今不可能(由于复杂和昂贵的调查方法或缺乏物种识别技能)的方式收集有关当地河流、湖泊或池塘中生物的信息。我们认为，能够收集这些数据将鼓励人们更多地了解当地水域的健康状况，从而采取进一步行动，要么更多地参与数据收集，要么解决改善淡水的问题。使用一种令人兴奋的、新颖的科学工具可以开辟一条接触和直接行动的途径。通过让志愿者参与决策过程并支持他们确定当地需求，我们相信参与者将培养与他人分享他们的技能的信心。国家信托基金是面向公众的IRO和慈善机构，也是大型土地所有者(25万公顷)，他们雄心勃勃地改造我们的土地，使之更适合野生动物，并为社会提供广泛的福利。拥有550万成员和60,000多名志愿者，接触和参与这项工作的大型社区的潜力是相当大的。伙伴关系的工作和公众的参与深深地植根于NT的整个研究计划中。NT面临的挑战之一是监控我们在整个庄园所做的改变的有效性，同时确保我们的监控努力在更广泛的英国网络中发挥作用，跟踪我们的景观健康状况。我们坚信，公民科学，利用我们的成员、志愿者和访客资产，可以在这方面发挥重要作用。通过这个项目，我们将聚集NT研究人员、领先的英国淡水和EDNA科学家、公民科学专家和一组NT志愿者，探索EDNA淡水监测方面的最新技术。通过研讨会和共同设计流程，我们将：为制定一个以淡水EDNA为基础的全英国公民科学项目产生一系列建议；制定和实施一个联合设计的试点项目，以测试一个集水区EDNA物种数据(鱼类和两栖动物)的公民科学收集；在该流域，NT正在领导一个合作项目，以改善和恢复淡水环境(上布雷，诺福克)；审查从试点中获得的经验教训，以便为进一步发展基于EDNA的公民科学提供信息。该项目将直接导致未来为一个以EDNA为基础的全国性公民科学研究项目的竞标提供资金。

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.