The Role of Environmental DNA in Conservation Biology and Biodiversity

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran

Abstract

Biodiversity loss, due to the environmental footprint left by humans, is one of the major problems of the 21st century. Efforts to conserve and reduce biodiversity extinction have been carried out by collecting data obtained from biological monitoring, which involves acquiring precise data about population size and species distribution on an ecological and temporal scale. In the past, species monitoring was done through morphological identification of species and counting individuals, but this method had flaws such as species similarity, which failed to determine the actual number of species. Traditional techniques could also be harmful to the environment. An alternative method involves obtaining various samples from species, communities, and populations by extracting DNA from environmental samples. Advances in science have shown that DNA from living organisms, as a result of their interactions with the environment, leaves behind traceable materials that remain stable and can be sampled, extracted, and analyzed. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is also used for studying past biodiversity and for the conservation of wildlife.

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References

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