Current advancements in environmental RNA (eRNA) exploit its relatively fast turnover rate relative to environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess ‘metabolically active’ or temporally/spatially recent community diversity. However, this focus significantly underutilizes the trove of potential ecological information encrypted in eRNA. Here, we argue for pushing beyond current species-level eDNA detection capabilities by using eRNA to detect any organisms with unique eRNA profiles, potentially including different life-history stages, sexes, or even specific phenotypes within a species. We also discuss the future of eRNA as a means of assessing the physiological status of organisms and the ecological health of populations and communities, reflecting ecosystem-level conditions. We posit that eRNA has the potential to significantly improve the resolution of organism detection, biological monitoring, and biomonitoring applications in ecology.

当前环境 RNA (eRNA) 的进展利用其相对于环境 DNA (eDNA) 的相对较快的周转率来评估“代谢活跃”或时间/空间最近的群落多样性。然而，这种关注显着未充分利用 eRNA 中加密的潜在生态信息宝库。在这里，我们主张通过使用 eRNA 来检测具有独特 eRNA 谱的任何生物体，可能包括不同的生活史阶段、性别，甚至是物种内的特定表型，从而超越当前的物种级 eDNA 检测能力。我们还讨论了 eRNA 作为评估生物体生理状态和种群和社区生态健康的一种手段的未来，反映了生态系统水平的条件。