Thread by @gkalinkat

#ICYMI a revolution in #biodiversity monitoring is underway. This revolution is driven by independent technological advances - but even more so once those can be integrated

A 🧵to highlight just a few recent papers and #preprints

(📸 biodiversity wall (c) @mfnberlin)

1. environmental DNA (eDNA)

It's now possible to detect animals & other organisms through tracking their molecular traces 🧬. Originally developed for #freshwater animals 🐸(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…), the technology can now be adapted to almost every environment:

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e.g. very recent advancements include (A) sampling of eDNA from the air to detect #insects ...

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onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

... (B) the use of "rainwash" from tree canopies to detect arboreal arthropods or ...

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biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

(C) the extraction of eDNA from archived environmental samples (here tree leaves).

The (very likely further) improvment of eDNA sampling, extraction & processing methods alone will completely change how biodiversity is assessed. But there's more ...

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2. Computer vision and deep learning are now advanced enough that you can automatically track and identify (some) insects "on-the-fly" (#SCNR). You read that right (check #openaccess paper by Bjerge et al …lpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…)

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3. Last, not least, throw crowd sourced information from the internet into this mix. We can separate this type of data into 2 realms: (A) #citizenscience, where volunteers actively contribute data for #biodiversity monitoring as in @inaturalist (e.g. …ractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10.53…)

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(B) Finally (and similarly to 3A), with the #iEcology data approach it will be possible to extract #biodiversity information from data sources that were not created for this purpose
(see our 2020 @Trends_Ecol_Evo paper led by @IvanJaric pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32521246/)

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@Trends_Ecol_Evo @IvanJaric To wrap this up: the integration of these emerging methods together with conventional monitoring will provide more complete pictures of biodiversity in a given place than we ever had.
See this recent preprint by @bessonmarc et al 👇
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@Trends_Ecol_Evo @IvanJaric @bessonmarc Of course there is still a long way to go & many caveats apply. Also, there's is so much we don't know (i.e. undescribed species etc) & we need to better fund taxonomy & related disciplines. Still I'm deeply fascinated by those recent advancements summarized in this🧵

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cc @leeselab @thoerren @alpineedna @altermatt_lab @franckcourchamp @Latrunculia @science_hitch @Roll_Uri @JoshAFirth @rahcorreia85 @KevinJGaston
@Fischblog @lingenhoehl @LennartPyritz

@leeselab @thoerren @alpineedna @altermatt_lab @franckcourchamp @Latrunculia @science_hitch @Roll_Uri @JoshAFirth @rahcorreia85 @KevinJGaston @Fischblog @lingenhoehl @LennartPyritz to add: as I stated above, many caveats apply see this new paper from @FrancoisKeck @alpineedna @altermatt_lab et al

the thing is not one of these methods alone will save us (far from it) but (1) their thoughtfull integration and complementation and ...

@leeselab @thoerren @alpineedna @altermatt_lab @franckcourchamp @Latrunculia @science_hitch @Roll_Uri @JoshAFirth @rahcorreia85 @KevinJGaston @Fischblog @lingenhoehl @LennartPyritz @FrancoisKeck (2) the automation of these methods.

Of course this won't happen in a year or two. As I've also stated above, better funding for taxonomy and the integration of emerging with conventional monitoring methods are essential for progress in this field

I'm adding add this link to new episode @DLF 'Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt' (in DE lang) to this thread (note: interviews in the episode were done before the most recent preprints in the thread above came out)

@DLF adding another new eDNA application paper to this thread: 🕸️ ➡️ 🧬

addendum: new study on teabag eDNA out in Biology Letters

link to study #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

adding this new overview article @Trends_Ecol_Evo by @PunksInScience @AlettaBonn @UKLadybirds @BowlerDBear @TokeHoye et al to this thread

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