Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology
Published on: November 5, 2014
At Palmyra Atoll, the fish-community environmental DNA signal changes across habitats but not with tides
Kevin D Lafferty1,2, Ana E Garcia-Vedrenne3, John P McLaughlin4
1Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, USA.
Abstract:
At Palmyra Atoll, the environmental DNA (eDNA) signal on tidal sand flats was associated with fish biomass density and captured 98%-100% of the expected species diversity there. Although eDNA spilled over across habitats, species associated with reef habitat contributed more eDNA to reef sites than to sand-flat sites, and species associated with sand-flat habitat contributed more eDNA to sand-flat sites than to reef sites. Tides did not disrupt the sand-flat habitat signal. At least 25 samples give a coverage >97.5% at this diverse, tropical, marine system.
More Related Videos
07:59Coral Reef Arks: An In Situ Mesocosm and Toolkit for Assembling Reef Communities
Published on: January 6, 2023
06:22The Floating Lab: Standard Operational Procedure for Collecting and Filtering Seawater Samples from Operating Ferries for Environmental DNA Analysis
Published on: August 1, 2025
Related Concept Videos
Marine Microbial Ecology
Deep Sea Microbial Ecology