How do you monitor which species live in an area? In addition to traditional ecological tools such as camera traps, researchers have reported new methods in recent years that allow them to detect minute traces of DNA known as environmental DNA, or eDNA, that animals leave behind in water and even air. In a study published June 15 in Biology Letters, a group reports picking up eDNA from a new source: dried plant material. The team purchased tea from grocery stores, and were able to detect hundreds of species of arthropods in just one bag.
We asked study coauthor Henrick Krehenwinkel, an ecological geneticist at Trier University in Germany who focuses on the ways in which arthropod communities have changed over time due to human influence, to spill the tea about why his group decided to use eDNA to investigate which critters have been munching on plants.
Henrik Krehenwinkel: We ...
