Dong-Hai Wu, Sai Wang, Peng-Fei Xie, Chu-Jun Zou, Hui-Long Ou, Tuan-Tuan Wang, Jia Xie, Yang Zhang, Cong-Cong Jin, Jie Feng, Shen-Hao Wu, Hina Amin, Sharon Indasi Lubembe, Naimat Ullah, Lei Liu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Effective monitoring of fish communities is essential for the ecological management of aquatic ecosystems. However, in complex artificial freshwater habitats, the comparative efficacy of emerging noninvasive tools versus traditional methods remains underexplored. To assess the applicability of noninvasive monitoring tools, we compared environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding with gillnetting for evaluating fish communities in the subtropical Xikeng Reservoir, southern China. A total of 38 fish species from seven orders and ten families were identified, with eDNA metabarcoding detecting more species (34 vs. 22), genera (31 vs. 21), and families (10 vs. 9) than gillnetting. The seasonal difference in fish community structure based on operational taxonomic unit (OTU) abundance (principal component analysis, R = 0.526) was stronger than that based on individual number (R = 0.276) and fresh weight (R = 0.149). Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordinations complemented by permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) confirmed significant spatial segregation in fish community structures between littoral and limnetic zones across all datasets (P < 0.001; OTU abundance: F = 24.620; individual number: F = 12.216; fresh weight: F = 10.256), with eDNA metabarcoding providing clearer habitat discrimination. eDNA metabarcoding is capable of identifying not only the key environmental factors (e.g., water temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, and biochemical oxygen demand) that affect fish species composition but also of explaining a greater degree of variance based on OTU abundance (46.60%) than those based on individual number (35.96%) and fresh weight (34.67%) obtained by gillnetting. Linear discriminant analysis selected 15, five, and five indicator species by OTU abundance, individual number, and fresh weight, respectively. The additional ten OTU-based indicator species (e.g., Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, Paramisgurnus dabryanus, and Sarotherodon galilaeus) could effectively distinguish the fish community in the littoral zone. Our results demonstrated that eDNA metabarcoding enhanced species detectability, resolved temporal and spatial community distribution characteristics with higher environmental sensitivity, and effectively characterized complex littoral microhabitats by identifying specific indicator species. In the future, integrating eDNA metabarcoding with gillnetting will play a crucial role in the field monitoring of aquatic biodiversity.
期刊介绍：
Aquatic Sciences – Research Across Boundaries publishes original research, overviews, and reviews dealing with aquatic systems (both freshwater and marine systems) and their boundaries, including the impact of human activities on these systems. The coverage ranges from molecular-level mechanistic studies to investigations at the whole ecosystem scale. Aquatic Sciences publishes articles presenting research across disciplinary and environmental boundaries, including studies examining interactions among geological, microbial, biological, chemical, physical, hydrological, and societal processes, as well as studies assessing land-water, air-water, benthic-pelagic, river-ocean, lentic-lotic, and groundwater-surface water interactions.
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