TY - JOUR
T1 - eDNA Metabarcoding- and Microscopic Analysis for Diet Determination in Waterfowl, a Comparative Study in Vejlerne, Denmark
AU - Lützhøft Svendsen, Anna-Sofie
AU - Nielsen, Louise Bach
AU - Schmidt, Jakob Braüner
AU - Bruhn, Dan
AU - Andersen, Line Holm
AU - Pertoldi, Cino
PY - 2023/9/21
Y1 - 2023/9/21
N2 - Understanding diets and structural food webs are keys to the apprehension of ecological communities, upon which conservation and management biology are based. The understanding of grazing and habitat choice for waterfowl is one of the most important topics for avian ecologists today and can, to some degree, be answered by dietary analysis. Droppings collected from four waterfowl, the Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), Greylag goose (Anser anser), pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) and Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) in Vejlerne (Denmark), were analysed microscopically and through eDNA metabarcoding with the use of next generation sequencing (NGS) to accumulate knowledge about the diet of these waterfowl. In total, 120 dropping samples were microscopically analysed, of which the eDNA metabarcoding analysis was done on 79 samples. The prey items were identified according to the taxonomic level of species, and a qualitative method, frequency of occurrence (FO) and FO calculated as a percentage, was used in order to compare the results from the two methods. As neither of the methods was able to encompass all species discovered when combining the two methods, it was concluded in this study that the two methods can support each other in a dietary analysis of waterfowl, but not replace one another.
AB - Understanding diets and structural food webs are keys to the apprehension of ecological communities, upon which conservation and management biology are based. The understanding of grazing and habitat choice for waterfowl is one of the most important topics for avian ecologists today and can, to some degree, be answered by dietary analysis. Droppings collected from four waterfowl, the Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), Greylag goose (Anser anser), pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) and Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) in Vejlerne (Denmark), were analysed microscopically and through eDNA metabarcoding with the use of next generation sequencing (NGS) to accumulate knowledge about the diet of these waterfowl. In total, 120 dropping samples were microscopically analysed, of which the eDNA metabarcoding analysis was done on 79 samples. The prey items were identified according to the taxonomic level of species, and a qualitative method, frequency of occurrence (FO) and FO calculated as a percentage, was used in order to compare the results from the two methods. As neither of the methods was able to encompass all species discovered when combining the two methods, it was concluded in this study that the two methods can support each other in a dietary analysis of waterfowl, but not replace one another.
KW - conservation biology
KW - cumulative curves
KW - diet determination
KW - eDNA metabarcoding
KW - frequency of occurrence
KW - microscopy
KW - taxonomic resolution
KW - waterfowl
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172221939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/biology12091272
DO - 10.3390/biology12091272
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37759671
SN - 2079-7737
VL - 12
JO - Biology
JF - Biology
IS - 9
M1 - 1272
ER -