Fish Populations Revealed Through Seawater Analysis
A research group led by YAMAMOTO Satoshi, a research fellow at the Kobe University Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, has shown that measuring quantities of fish DNA in seawater can reveal how many fish inhabit that environment. This discovery could enable quicker and more effective surveys of fish distribution, and has potential applications in long-term monitoring. The findings will be published on March 3 in the online science journal "PLOS ONE".
The researchers collect seawater samples. Credit: Kobe University
The researchers collected 1-liter samples of surface water and bottom water from 47 locations in Maizuru bay, and analyzed the environmental DNA of Japanese jack mackerel using real-time PCR. The …
Until now, the distribution of marine species was calculated using two main methods: fish capture and fish finder equipment. However, these survey methods involve heavy costs in time and manpower, and specialist knowledge is required to use the measuring apparatus. On the other hand, a method was already available for determining whether the target fish inhabit a certain area of water: analysis of the fish DNA released into the water. Doctor YAMAMOTO's research group took this a step further, testing whether it was possible to discover the location of fish and size of their schools by measuring the amounts of DNA released into the environment (known as environmental DNA, or eDNA).
In June 2014, a research group led by YAMAMOTO Satoshi (Kobe University research fellow), MINAMI Kenji (Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University), and FUKAYA Keiichi (Project Assistant
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