Biodiversity monitoring through environmental DNA analysis

健康生态系统的价值及其带来的益处是全球公认的，但监测这种健康的最佳方法是什么？我的实验室的研究表明，在DNA元系统框架中获得的生物多样性信息可以显著地帮助生态和环境监测。最近和正在进行的DNA测序和用于数据分析的计算工具的进展导致转向基于基因组学的研究，以解决基本的生物学问题。生物多样性基因组学侧重于利用基因组学信息来了解从基因到生物体到物种到整个生态系统的生物多样性。我们的研究结果为提高生态系统监测和保护的敏感性、及时性和有效性提供了前所未有的机会，同时降低了成本。本建议概述了未来的发展方向，以及我的实验室将如何应用我们新开发的DNA元系统学方法对选定的优先地点进行生态群落分析，以获得高分辨率物种水平的分类信息，以及用于长期生态系统健康评估的高频时空数据。

The value of healthy ecosystems and the benefits they provide is globally acknowledged, but what is the best way to monitor this health? Research from my lab suggests that biodiversity information obtained in a DNA metasystematics framework can significantly aid ecological and environmental monitoring. Recent and ongoing advances in DNA sequencing and computational tools for data analysis have resulted in shifts towards genomics-based investigations to address basic biological questions. Biodiversity genomics is focused on the use of genomics information for understanding biological diversity from genes to organisms to species to whole ecosystems. Results of our research demonstrate a way forward that offers unprecedented opportunities to increase the sensitivity, timeliness, and effectiveness of ecosystem monitoring and protection, while simultaneously driving down the cost. This proposal outlines that way forward, and how my lab will apply our newly developed DNA metasystematics approach for ecological community analysis of selected priority sites to achieve high-resolution species-level taxonomic information, as well as high-frequency spatio-temporal data for long-term ecosystem health assessment.