Biomonitoring is an essential tool for assessing ecological conditions and informing management strategies. The application of DNA metabarcoding and high throughput sequencing has improved data quantity and resolution for biomonitoring of taxa such as macroinvertebrates, yet, there remains the need to optimise these methods for other taxonomic groups. Diatoms have a longstanding history in freshwater biomonitoring as bioindicators of water quality status. However, periphyton scraping, a common diatom sampling practice, is time-consuming and thus costly in terms of labour. This study examined whether the benthic kick-net technique used for macroinvertebrate biomonitoring could be applied to bulk-sample diatoms for metabarcoding. To test this approach, we collected samples using both conventional microhabitat periphyton scraping and bulk-tissue kick-net methodologies in parallel from replicated sites with different habitat status (good/fair). We found there was no significant difference in community assemblages between conventional periphyton scraping and kick-net methodologies, but there was significant difference between diatom communities depending on site quality (P = 0.029). These results show the diatom taxonomic coverage achieved through DNA metabarcoding of kick-net is suitable for ecological biomonitoring applications. The shift to a more robust sampling approach and capturing diatoms and macroinvertebrates in a single sampling event has the potential to significantly improve efficiency of biomonitoring programmes.

中文翻译：

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底栖反冲网元条形码对淡水硅藻的生物监测

生物监测是评估生态条件和提供管理策略的重要工具。DNA元条形码和高通量测序的应用提高了分类生物（如大型无脊椎动物）生物监测的数据量和分辨率，但是，仍然需要针对其他分类学组优化这些方法。硅藻作为水质状况的生物指示剂在淡水生物监测中具有悠久的历史。但是，刮除藻（一种常见的硅藻取样方法）非常耗时，因此劳动成本很高。这项研究检查了用于大型无脊椎动物生物监测的底栖底钩网技术是否可用于大样本硅藻进行元条形码编码。为了测试这种方法，我们使用常规的微生境周生植物刮除法和散装组织反冲网方法从具有不同栖息地状态（良好/一般）的复制地点平行收集了样本。我们发现传统的周生植物刮phy法和踢网法之间的群落组合没有显着差异，但硅藻群落之间的显着差异取决于站点质量（P = 0.029）。这些结果表明，通过踢网的DNA元条形码实现的硅藻分类学覆盖范围适用于生态生物监测应用。转向更强大的采样方法并在单个采样事件中捕获硅藻和大型无脊椎动物的趋势有可能显着提高生物监测程序的效率。