Reflection from week 4
This week we discussed a paper on eDNA from suspended particulate matter. It made me face how important it is to read about the sampling design of any study before drawing inferences. In this paper, it seeemed like the lack of rigor in the sampling design took away from confidence in the results. Even though it was just a proof of concept paper for getting eDNA from SPM, what is SPM if not a combination of water (and all the particulates that you get in water samples) and sediment forming from particulates falling out of the water.
It also made me wonder how applicable are eDNA studies in freshwater systems to our studies in the ocean? In a marine system, I can’t imagine using a single collector for a study in any place, because there is way too much heterogeneity in the environment.
But, I was really glad and excited to see that the PowerSoil kit did a good job picking up fish DNA with relatively good purity!