Ancient and modern environmental DNA

Abstract

DNA obtained from environmental samples such as sediments, ice or water (environmental DNA, eDNA), represents an important source of information on past and present biodiversity. It has revealed an ancient forest in Greenland, extended by several thousand years the survival dates for mainland woolly mammoth in Alaska, and pushed back the dates for spruce survival in Scandinavian ice-free refugia during the last glaciation. More recently, eDNA was used to uncover the past 50 000 years of vegetation history in the Arctic, revealing massive vegetation turnover at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, with implications for the extinction of megafauna. Furthermore, eDNA can reflect the biodiversity of extant flora and fauna, both qualitatively and quantitatively, allowing detection of rare species. As such, trace studies of plant and vertebrate DNA in the environment have revolutionized our knowledge of biogeography. However, the approach remains marred by biases related to DNA behaviour in environmental settings, incomplete reference databases and false positive results due to contamination. We provide a review of the field.

Keywords

environmental DNA; ancient; environment; ancient DNA; review

Published in

Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
2015, volume: 370, number: 1660
Publisher: ROYAL SOC

SLU Authors

• Spens, Johan

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Evolutionary Biology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0383

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/77151