CoastCheck: Establishment of robust eDNA assays to assess organic pollution impacts on infaunal macrobenthic invertebrate communities in coastal waters of British Columbia

省级和联邦政府授权的废水和环境影响监测计划要求对生活在海底软沉积物中的海洋无脊椎动物群落的健康状况进行评估。Biologica使用传统的分类和视觉分类方法为政府和行业提供分类鉴定服务超过20年。然而，这种方法非常耗时，成本高，并且在技术上具有挑战性。有必要扩大和提高监测这些无脊椎动物的可靠性。 所有生物体都由其遗传物质定义，这些DNA被释放到环境中。这种“环境DNA（eDNA）”可以通过对水和沉积物样本进行灵敏和准确的分子测试来检测。 该项目的总体目标是开发强有力的、有针对性的基于eDNA的测试，以评估有机污染对生活在海洋地区沉积物中的无脊椎动物的影响。 CRD项目结合了学术界的专业知识，（维多利亚大学），工业（Biologica）和废水管理服务提供商（维多利亚首都地区和大温哥华污水和排水区），以实现两个主要目标：1）开发和验证用于感兴趣的无脊椎动物物种的验证样本的eDNA测试，以及2）创建稳健的，利用生活在海底沉积物中的无脊椎动物对海洋沿海社区进行有机污染影响评估的标准化eDNA实地取样方法。这将在三个具体目标中实现：1）从经验证的标本中获得高质量的DNA序列，2）开发和验证用于选定无脊椎动物的eDNA测试，以及3）将eDNA测试应用于现实世界的场景。 这些新的eDNA工具的常规应用将彻底改变分类服务行业以及如何评估废水的环境影响。

Provincially- and federally-mandated programs for wastewater and environmental effects monitoring require an assessment of the health of marine invertebrate communities that live in the soft sediments at the sea bottom. Biologica has provided taxonomic identification services for government and industry for over 20 years using traditional sorting and visual classification methods. However, this approach is very time-consuming, costly, and technically challenging. There is a need to expand and improve upon the reliability of monitoring these invertebrates. All living organisms are defined by their genetic material and this DNA is released into the environment. This "environmental DNA (eDNA)" can be detected using sensitive and accurate molecular tests on water and sediment samples. The overall project goal is to develop robust, targeted eDNA-based tests to assess the impact of organic pollution on invertebrates that live in sediments of marine areas. The CRD project combines the expertise of academic (University of Victoria), industry (Biologica), and wastewater management service providers (the Capital Regional District of Victoria and the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District) to address two main objectives: 1) to develop and validate eDNA tests for verified specimens of invertebrate species of interest, and 2) to create a robust, standardized eDNA field sampling approach for marine coastal community assessments of organic pollution impacts using invertebrates that live in sea bottom sediments. This will be accomplished in three specific aims: 1) to obtain high quality DNA sequences from verified specimens, 2) to develop and validate eDNA tests for select invertebrates, and 3) to apply the eDNA tests in real-world scenarios. The routine application of these new eDNA tools will revolutionize the taxonomy service industry and how environmental impacts of wastewater are assessed.