Environmental DNA (eDNA) Metabarcoding as a Sustainable Tool of Coastal Biodiversity Assessment

Abstract

Global biodiversity loss represents one of the most serious environmental crises of the 21st centuries, with substantial impact on both ecosystem services and the health of our environment. 52% of global biodiversity decline was recorded between 1970 and 2010, and this loss was even higher for freshwater populations than for marine or terrestrial ecosystems (WWF 2014). Undeniably, Malaysian coastal ecosystem harbour extraordinary biodiversity having this country is recognised as one of the megadiverse country. However, unsustainable development of the Malaysian coastal area has led to the decline of the aquatic biodiversity. There is limited knowledge on the extent of biodiversity and the genetic resources in the aquatic environment some of them could already be extinct before we could identify them. Therefore, by implementing the Living Lab concept accustomed to the university, a non-invasive alternative method called environmental DNA or eDNA metabarcoding with an aid of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was introduced to identify species diversity of fish in a coastal ecosystem. In this study, the eDNA metabarcoding tool is applied in assessing water samples for fish species detection. This new, time and cost-effective method enables the acquisition of large datasets, paving the way for a finer understanding of fish diversity in different river landscape, with major implications for sustainable fisheries management and conservation, in parallel to goal fourteen (14) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals—Life Below Water.