Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as one of the most efficient methods to assess aquatic species presence. While the method can in theory be used to investigate nonaquatic fauna, its development for inventorying semi-aquatic and terrestrial fauna is still at an early stage. Here we investigated the potential of aquatic eDNA metabarcoding for inventorying mammals in Neotropical environments, be they aquatic, semi-aquatic or terrestrial. We collected aquatic eDNA in 96 sites distributed along three Guianese watersheds and compared our inventories to expected species distributions and field observations derived from line transects located throughout French Guiana. Species occurrences and emblematic mammalian fauna richness patterns were consistent with the expected distribution of fauna and our results revealed that aquatic eDNA metabarcoding brings additional data to line transect samples for diurnal nonaquatic (terrestrial and arboreal) species. Aquatic eDNA also provided data on species not detectable in line transect surveys such as semi-aquatic, aquatic and nocturnal terrestrial and arboreal species. Although the application of eDNA to inventory mammals still needs some developments to optimize sampling efficiency, it can now be used as a complement to traditional surveys.

中文翻译：

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使用水生环境 DNA 监测亚马逊哺乳动物

环境 DNA (eDNA) 元条形码已成为评估水生物种存在的最有效方法之一。虽然该方法理论上可用于调查非水生动物群，但其用于清查半水生和陆生动物群的发展仍处于早期阶段。在这里，我们研究了水生 eDNA 元条形码在新热带环境中清点哺乳动物的潜力，无论是水生、半水生还是陆生。我们在分布在圭亚那三个流域的 96 个地点收集了水生 eDNA，并将我们的清单与来自整个法属圭亚那的线样断面的预期物种分布和实地观察进行了比较。物种出现和标志性哺乳动物动物群丰富度模式与动物群的预期分布一致，我们的结果表明，水生 eDNA 元条形码为昼夜非水生（陆生和树栖）物种的横断面样本带来了额外的数据。水生 eDNA 还提供了在线横断面调查中无法检测到的物种的数据，例如半水生、水生和夜间陆生和树栖物种。尽管将 eDNA 应用于库存哺乳动物仍然需要一些发展来优化采样效率，但它现在可以用作传统调查的补充。水生和夜间陆生和树栖物种。尽管将 eDNA 应用于库存哺乳动物仍然需要一些发展来优化采样效率，但它现在可以用作传统调查的补充。水生和夜间陆生和树栖物种。尽管将 eDNA 应用于库存哺乳动物仍然需要一些发展来优化采样效率，但它现在可以用作传统调查的补充。