Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to the December 2024 edition of the eDNA extract. We’re happy to share some exciting updates with you as we wind up another immense year of eDNA development and discovery:

• Wilderlab gains ISO 17025 accreditation

• WilderWindUp – key stats for 2024

• Sponsored kits awarded to community eDNA projects

• New eDNA kits for diet and specimen testing

• Feedback from our annual customer survey

• Looking ahead to 2025

• Christmas closing dates

The accreditation of taxon-free eDNA metabarcoding is a world first, and couldn’t come at a better time.

eDNA is playing a key role in reversing global biodiversity loss, through the early detection of invasives, mapping threatened species and monitoring ecosystem change. Applying quality standards such as ISO 17025 will reinforce confidence in eDNA as a tool for resource management, sustainability assurance programmes, biodiversity credit schemes and other initiatives aimed at improving biodiversity outcomes.

We wish to extend a huge thank you to IANZ, whose auditors and reviewers were instrumental in enhancing our lab protocols and quality system. Not the easiest or cheapest exercise, but an essential journey for those in pursuit of eDNA perfection!

Winding up 2024 with some eDNA stats

As we celebrate another record year of eDNA monitoring, we’re taking a look at some summary stats from 2024. Thanks to your efforts, we’ve set a new bar in the number of eDNA samples processed, and detected over triple last year’s total sequences. This led to the identification of 17,989 species this year – up 70% on last year’s total – boosted by some monumental sampling efforts in Australia, Taiwan, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. We’ve loved seeing all the new species detections flood in and can’t wait to see what discoveries 2025 has in store!

This year’s highest TICI stream health score was an impressive 132.24. This ultra-pristine sample was collected by Mark Hansen and Noah Davis from WSP during field surveys in the Otira catchment. Congratulations to Mark, Noah and the rest of the WSP team!

Sponsored kits awarded to community eDNA projects

Congratulations also to the 10 community groups whose eDNA projects were successful in the latest Wai Tuwhera o te Taiao funding round: Revitalising our Rivers. We were blown away by the quality of the 60+ applications, and were inspired to hear from so many incredible people working to protect Aotearoa's waterways and their inhabitants.

The groups sharing in our donation of $100K worth of eDNA kits and testing services are: 

Eastern Whio Link, Waingongoro Awa Restoration Project, East Otago Catchment Group and Kati Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki, Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust, Muriwai Community Catchment Group Tairāwhiti, Ahuriri Catchment Community Group, Haititaimarangai Marae Trust, Wainui Beach Catchment Kaitiaki Collective, Kahotea Stream Restoration Group/Ngāti Toa Rangatira/Mountains to Sea Wellington, and Urban Ark - Manawa Taiao. 

We're proud to partner with the Environmental Protection Authority NZ in sponsoring eDNA resources for these projects. Using new tree-of-life (ToL) metabarcoding and taxon-independent (TICI) eDNA techniques, the groups will gather valuable biodiversity data to assess river health as their restoration efforts progress. Best of luck to our restoration heroes – we’re pumped to support your hard work revitalising our rivers! 

New product innovation: diet and specimen eDNA kits

We’ve been processing an increasing number of diet and specimen samples this year, from penguin poops to fishy fillets. To make things easier for our customers, we’ve developed a specialised sample collection kit for specimen and diet analysis. This kit is designed for in-field collection and preservation of plant and animal specimens, scats, animal stomach contents, and other sources of DNA.  

The new sampling method involves filtering a ‘slurry’ of specimen material and boiling water. This ensures that the DNA remains stable at room temperature for storage and transport, destroys enzymes that can mess with the sequencing reactions, and standardises the amount of biological material for optimal results with the Wilderlab assay panels.

For more information, take a look at the instructions and video on our website, or feel free to reach out to us directly with any questions. If you still have old specimen kits, please email our orders team and we’ll be happy to replace them with the new version free of charge.

Feedback from our annual customer survey

A huge thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts in our recent customer survey. We received a solid stack of 124 responses, and you gave us 4.77 stars overall. We’re delighted to see such high satisfaction with our services!

We’ve taken on board last year’s feedback about speeding up the turnaround time. This year, we’ve averaged just 8 working days from receiving your samples to sending your results. It’s great to see that our efforts have paid off, with our satisfaction score increasing from 4.4 to 4.7 in this area. A few of you mentioned that you’d like to see more clarity for non-scientists in our results outputs, and highlighted difficulty in pushing enough water through the filters before clogging. Thank you for all your detailed comments – this gives us valuable information on what to work on next year as we continue to hone our eDNA tools. In case you missed the survey, we’d still love to hear your feedback through our website contact form at wilderlab.co.nz/contact.

We’re happy to announce Willem Tolhoek, Head of Science at Lincoln High School, as the lucky winner of our 6-replicate eDNA kit giveaway!

Willem plans to use the kit with his students as part of restoration monitoring at Tārerekautuku Yarrs Lagoon, one of the largest remaining freshwater habitats in the lower plains of Canterbury. The area was a significant mahinga kai site for the local Ngāi Tahu Iwi due to its high biodiversity. Restoration monitoring at Tārerekautuku Yarrs Lagoon is a collaboration between Selwyn District Council, Lincoln University, Lincoln High School, the Tait Foundation and Enviroschools (Environment Canterbury). Student participation is based on work from Mike Bowie who completed a similar project alongside Lincoln University post-graduate students in 2022.

The aim of this monitoring is to evaluate the impact that restoration work is having on the biodiversity in this area. The group hope that the eDNA data will uncover endemic species that may once have been common in the area, giving value to the restoration project now and into the future.

Looking ahead to 2025

2025 is set to be a big year for Wilderlab, with lots of exciting updates on the horizon. Below is a sneak preview of what we’ve got planned: 

The Australian and New Zealand eDNA Conference is set to take place during February 18-21 in our home city of Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington. It promises to be a fantastic few days learning and sharing about the latest eDNA innovations and discoveries. We're proud to return as the conference’s platinum sponsor and would love to see you there. Check out the full programme here.  

With the help of our colleagues from across NZ’s regional councils, we’ll be testing the use of Grover Pro filtration pumps in conjunction with a specially designed pump eDNA kit. Many thanks to everyone taking part in the trial – we hope that these pumps will mean less time filtering in the field, less plastic waste, and evenly-sized biceps for all. 

Next year, we’ll also be expanding our eDNA analysis options beyond freshwater testing. We’ve been piloting a new panel for marine environments, including new assays for detecting corals and sponges. So far, we’ve been blown away by the results – particularly by Dr Joey DiBattista’s eDNA sampling in Taiwan. This work, conducted in collaboration with Professor Colin Wen at Tunghai University and Dr Chris Goatley at the University of Southampton, provided a stunning insight into the cryptic biodiversity of Taiwanese coral reefs. You can take a deep dive into the results here – a huge thanks to Joey and the team for making their data public on the map.

We’ve also taken your many soil testing enquiries on board – watch this space... 

Finally – we're excited to announce that Wilderlab is expanding into New South Wales! We’ve seen a huge uptake of eDNA monitoring from our friends across the Tasman, including DPIRD’s NSW Estuary Asset Protection program led by Dr Maarten De Brauwer and funded by State & Commonwealth Disaster Recovery Funding. So far, they’ve collected over 1000 samples, building a comprehensive picture of estuarine biodiversity along Australia’s East Coast. A big thanks to Maarten and the NEAP team for generously making their data public – check out some of their amazing results on the Wilderlab map. 

A string of gold-standard eDNA samples now lines the NSW coast thanks to DPIRD’s NEAP estuarine monitoring program. Sample 73545 from Shoal Bay is a special highlight, hosting several species of sharks, dolphins, and a dazzling array of other fauna and flora.

Wilderlab Australia Pty Ltd. will be operating out of Sydney from early 2025. Our Wellington lab will continue as usual, ensuring a seamless and rapid service for our customers on both sides of the Tasman.

Wilderlab’s Christmas break

After another huge year, our team is looking forward to a well-earned Christmas break. Last orders will be dispatched on the 20th December. We’ll be closed from 24th December and will officially reopen on 6th January. Thank you all for your continued support this year. We can’t wait to see what discoveries you make in 2025!