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Ciliate DNA metabarcoding as a tool for environmental impact assessment (EIA) using salmon aquaculture as a test case
Project
Project code: 324331398
Contract period: 01.01.2016
- 31.12.2017
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: Animal Ecology, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Research
Unicellular ciliated protists have ideal bioindicator qualities due to their sensitivity to organic pollution, their fast reaction time to environmental change, their high population densities and short generation times. However, environmental monitoring programs and environmental impact assessments (EIA) have yet to fully exploit the power of these small-sized protists. This is because the visual (microscopic) screening of numerous environmental samples for exhaustive ciliate morphospecies identification is too challenging and time consuming to be applied routinely in most ecological studies. The goal of this proposed project is therefore the development of a morphology-independent ciliate DNA metabarcode system for EIA as a faster, more reliable, more accurate, and less expensive alternative to the traditional macro-invertebrate based EIA. Such a system will be widely applicable, including EIAs of offshore drilling, seabed mining, offshore windparks, bottom trawling and various types of aquacultures. The test case for this proposed project will be finfish (salmon) aquaculture sites in Norway. Ciliate DNA barcodes from three different gene regions will be obtained from samples collected along a transect of decreasing organic pollution from below the fish cages towards non-impacted control sites. Ciliate indicator DNA barcodes will be identified, which correlate significantly with different environmental impact classes. Based on these data, a ciliate DNA barcode-based marine biotic index (CilMBI) will be developed and compared to a traditional macroinvertebrate marine biotic index (AMBI), routinely used in such EIAs as established in international and national water framework directives.
Section overview
Subjects
- Genetic Resources
- Mariculture
- Computer science
