fundamentals of eDNA

Something that is challenging to me is translating eDNA methods and experimental designs from aquatic or terrestrial systems to marine systems. I’m experiencing this challenge in my other course as well (Eco-evolutionary dynamics) and lose some of the understanding if I can’t relate the systems. However, the discussion that we had around this paper, both in our breakout sessions and as a whole class, really helped to tease out some of the questions that were bubbling up for me in the confusion between translation. I’ve identified experimental design as a priority and an area for improvement for myself as part of my PhD experience and I already feel like I’m making strides. I especially appreciated the discussion around the use of the word “seasonality” and how undefined a lot of us felt it was. It highlighted the simple idea of “what is your question?” and required that we continue to return to what the objective of the study was - “a general evaluation of whether eDNA as a sampling methodology is either robust or sensitive to variation in activity or behavior of focal organism across seasons.” They defined their seasons as warm or cool and many of us were looking for more detail than that, but they answered their question. So, in general, a great paper to really dig into the challenges of experimental design and a great way to not only think about how I will design my experiments but also to think about evaluating how other people might perceive it. I think this will be a practice in asking “what am I missing” and “how can I do this differently”. I will close with it was really refreshing to be far enough along in eDNA that I now understand the different stages of eDNA analysis, the jargon, and the products and processes. This allows me to better join the conversation and not feel like I’m lost all of the time.