There is an urgent need for rapid, standardised, accurate and accessible monitoring techniques to better detect and quantify change given the increasing threat of degradation and biodiversity loss in freshwater ecosystems. Community-based monitoring projects have been proven successful for the collection of meaningful biological data from a range of target species and ecosystems. The STREAM (Sequencing the Rivers for Environmental Assessment and Monitoring) project combines community-based monitoring with a DNA metabarcoding approach to assess aquatic ecosystem health by determining biodiversity of benthic macroinvertebrate species across Canadian watersheds. STREAM consists of outreach and recruitment, training and dissemination of results obtained from sequence data, allowing rapid generation of watershed biodiversity reports (e.g. in 2 months). We emphasise the benefits of partnering with community groups in these DNA biomonitoring efforts, highlighting the value of environmental stewardship and eliminating bottlenecks for scientific data collection. We believe the approach taken in STREAM is not only applicable to Canada, but functions as an ideal model for freshwater monitoring on a global scale.

鉴于淡水生态系统退化和生物多样性丧失的威胁日益增加，迫切需要快速、标准化、准确和易于使用的监测技术，以更好地检测和量化变化。以社区为基础的监测项目在从一系列目标物种和生态系统收集有意义的生物数据方面已被证明是成功的。STREAM（环境评估和监测的河流测序）项目将基于社区的监测与 DNA 元条形码方法相结合，通过确定加拿大流域底栖大型无脊椎动物物种的生物多样性来评估水生生态系统的健康状况。STREAM 包括外展和招募、培训和传播从序列数据中获得的结果，允许快速生成流域生物多样性报告（例如在 2 个月内）。我们强调在这些 DNA 生物监测工作中与社区团体合作的好处，强调环境管理的价值并消除科学数据收集的瓶颈。我们相信 STREAM 中采用的方法不仅适用于加拿大，而且可以作为全球范围内淡水监测的理想模型。