eDNA FISHERMEN: Sam Chin (left) and Nathan Morris (center), PhD students in Elizabeth Alter’s lab, collecting water samples for eDNA analysis with Mark Stoeckle (right) at the New York AquariumJESSE AUSUBEL
When investigating the different forms of marine life inhabiting New York City’s various bodies of water, Mark Stoeckle, a biologist at Rockefeller University, says “a bucket, like what you would use when you’re painting your house,” along with a rope and a few empty bottles will do the trick. Using these simple tools, he and his team collected water samples from the lower Hudson and East Rivers to obtain traces of DNA that had been sloughed off by various fish species.
“We threw the bucket in the water, hauled it up, [and] poured the samples into some rinsed-out juice bottles,” says Stoeckle. They then took those water-filled containers back to the lab and analyzed the DNA.
Bits of free-floating DNA shed by fish and other ...
