Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2021
Publication Title
Molecular Ecology
Abstract
In a recent paper, “Environmental DNA: What's behind the term? Clarifying the terminology and recommendations for its future use in biomonitoring,” Pawlowski et al. argue that the term eDNA should be used to refer to the pool of DNA isolated from environmental samples, as opposed to only extra-organismal DNA from macro-organisms. We agree with this view. However, we are concerned that their proposed two-level terminology specifying sampling environment and targeted taxa is overly simplistic and might hinder rather than improve clear communication about environmental DNA and its use in biomonitoring. This terminology is based on categories that are often difficult to assign and uninformative, and it overlooks a fundamental distinction within eDNA: the type of DNA (organismal or extra-organismal) from which ecological interpretations are derived.
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez‐Ezpeleta, Naiara; Morissette, Olivier; Bean, Colin W.; Manu, Shivakumara; Banerjee, Pritam; Lacoursière-Roussel, Anaïs; Beng, Kingsly C.; Alter, S. Elizabeth; Roger, Fabian; Holman, Luke E.; Stewart, Kathryn A.; Monaghan, Michael T.; Mauvisseau, Quentin; Mirimin, Luca; Wangensteen, Owen S.; Antognazza, Caterina M.; Helyar, Sarah J.; de Boer, Hugo; Monchamp, Marie-Eve; Nijland, Reindert; Abbott, Cathryn L.; Doi, Hideyuki; Barnes, Matthew A.; Leray, Matthieu; Hablützel, Pascal I.; and Deiner, Kristy, "Trade-Offs Between Reducing Complex Terminology and Producing Accurate Interpretations from Environmental DNA: Comment on “Environmental DNA: What's behind the term?” by Pawlowski et al., (2020)" (2021). Biology and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations. 10.
https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/biochem_fac/10
Comments
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Published in Molecular Ecology by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Available via doi: 10.1111/mec.15942.