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. 2024 May 2;14(1):10154.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-60762-8.

Harnessing eDNA metabarcoding to investigate fish community composition and its seasonal changes in the Oslo fjord

Cintia Oliveira Carvalho #  1   2 , William Gromstad #  1 , Micah Dunthorn  1 , Hans Erik Karlsen  3 , Audun Schrøder-Nielsen  1 , Jonathan Stuart Ready  2 , Torbjørn Haugaasen  4 , Grete Sørnes  3 , Hugo de Boer  1 , Quentin Mauvisseau  5
Affiliations

Harnessing eDNA metabarcoding to investigate fish community composition and its seasonal changes in the Oslo fjord

Cintia Oliveira Carvalho et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

In the face of global ecosystem changes driven by anthropogenic activities, effective biomonitoring strategies are crucial for mitigating impacts on vulnerable aquatic habitats. Time series analysis underscores a great significance in understanding the dynamic nature of marine ecosystems, especially amidst climate change disrupting established seasonal patterns. Focusing on Norway's Oslo fjord, our research utilises eDNA-based monitoring for temporal analysis of aquatic biodiversity during a one year period, with bi-monthly sampling along a transect. To increase the robustness of the study, a taxonomic assignment comparing BLAST+ and SINTAX approaches was done. Utilising MiFish and Elas02 primer sets, our study detected 63 unique fish species, including several commercially important species. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in read abundance during specific migratory cycles, highlighting the efficacy of eDNA metabarcoding for fish composition characterization. Seasonal dynamics for certain species exhibit clear patterns, emphasising the method's utility in unravelling ecological complexities. eDNA metabarcoding emerges as a cost-effective tool with considerable potential for fish community monitoring for conservation purposes in dynamic marine environments like the Oslo fjord, contributing valuable insights for informed management strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sampling sites across the Oslo fjord. Sampling sites are indicated with red dots crossing the fjord outside Drøbak. The width of the fjord bottleneck near Drøbak is approximately 1.5 km. The first part of the map was created using R ver. 4.3.3 (https://cran.r-project.org/) with the ggplot2 and sf packages, and the other part is a drawing made through PowerPoint to show the sampling location.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative read abundance of fish at family-level resolution detected through eDNA metabarcoding, at each seasonal sampling event for each marker, and for each taxonomic assignment method.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Boxplots showing the mean, quartiles, and 95% confidence limits for the number of species identified at the different sites, based on the totals across all six seasonal sampling events.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Boxplots showing the mean, quartiles, and 95% confidence limits for the number of species identified at each sampling event and within Elas02 and MiFish markers.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Seasonal changes in DNA read counts identified for expected species in the samples. Red bubbles indicate species mostly present in the Oslo fjord during the summer, while blue bubbles show species present during winter.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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