Issue Genetic material in water and soil as continuous biodiversity monitoring

Summary

Conventional biodiversity surveys are labour-intensive, costly, limited by season and can harm the species and habitats being studied. Environmental DNA and RNA methods offer a cheaper alternative that supports continuous monitoring. They work by sampling water, soil or sediment and detecting the genetic material that species leave behind, so organisms need not be captured and ecosystems are not disturbed. Because 60% of emerging human diseases are zoonotic and 70% of those originate in wildlife, the same sampling could reveal pathogens that threaten biodiversity and even human health. Global eDNA and eRNA networks could build large cross-ecosystem datasets that serve as baselines for comparison and could evolve into an early-warning system for outbreaks.