THE EXTRACT

December 2021

Kia ora koutou, 

It’s been a long time coming, but we are excited to share our first ever Wilderlab newsletter with you. Each month or so, one of the Wilderpeople will provide updates on the latest developments from the lab, including innovations in technology, new species detections, community events and any other exciting eDNA news.

In this first edition, I will give you a quick update on our available sampling resources, our social media comms, a national trial of our new passive sampler kits, and the upcoming eDNA conference in Hobart, Tasmania.

Our team will be in the wilderness between December 25 and January 4, and only the PO Box will be able to receive samples during this time. If your samples are held up over the break - no stress, the kits are designed to keep your eDNA fresh at room temerature for several months.

Thank you for your continued support during 2021. We wish you an enjoyable, well-earned break and a prosperous year to come.

Ngā mihi nui,

Bobby

New instructional resources available

You may have noticed a new directions page has appeared on our website. This is where we will post resources in both English and te reo Māori, to help you get the most out of your eDNA samples. For example, after receiving plenty of feedback asking for video tutorials, Amy and I spent a day at the Hutt River Te Awa Kairangi with skilled videographer Saeran Maniparathy from Influence Media NZ. Together we made two short clips showing how to correctly use Wilderlab’s eDNA mini kit and eDNA drogue sampler. These tutorials are ideal for the novice sampler, and even seasoned eDNA professionals may learn a thing or two!

We’ll continue to add material to this page including survey design tips, sampling do’s and don’ts, and guidelines for interpreting and reporting your data. Make sure to check out these resources on the new directions page, and keep an eye out for more helpful content to come!

Social media expansion

We’ve been making a big effort to increase our social media presence and keep people updated on the latest developments from our lab. This includes regular posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and even our own Wilderlab blog.

In 2022 we’ll continue to highlight the efforts of community-led organisations who are putting in the mahi to protect and restore our waterways, and may even send out some eDNA prize packs to help those interested to measure the ecological effects of their wonderful restoration efforts.

You can also check out our latest post about the ‘bird of the year’ award, which went to Pekapeka-tou-roa, the long-shot, long-tailed bat. We’ll discuss whether we can pick up this species in our eDNA assays (spoiler alert: yes), where we have detected them, and some useful approaches to bat population monitoring using eDNA.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date on the lab’s latest developments and blog posts, give us a follow on social media!

Photo credit: Colin O’Donnell - Department of Conservation

Passive sampler breakthrough

One of our most exciting developments of 2021 was when we finally cracked the perfect passive sampler. Shaun was in the Wairarapa on a romantic getaway-turned-eDNA field trip, when he made a few tweaks to the design and presto! we had three times as many species showing up on the filters. The bag-type passive sampler ‘Drogue One’ is now available on our website, and there are two new deployment options; a handy peg-mount system and a manifold for mounting six replicate samplers on a waratah. In all cases the passive sampler is deployed in flowing water and filters several thousand litres over a 24 hour period. This means that it can detect a wide diversity of flora and fauna over a very large spatial scale.

The passive sampler kits are ideal for catchment-scale biodiversity studies, fish passage assessments, biosecurity applications and rare/threatened species monitoring. We are currently working with Regional Councils around the country on a high-replication trial, in which we hope to determine the best number of replicates to use for different applications. This testing is due to happen over the next few months, and we will be posting regular updates on our website and social media.

Photo credit: Paul Fisher - Nelson City Council

Inaugural Australasian eDNA conference

We are delighted to announce that Wilderlab has signed on as the platinum sponsor for the first Australian and New Zealand eDNA conference to be held in Hobart, Tasmania, from 21-23 March 2022. With the conference programme out now, we are thrilled that all four Wildertalks were accepted for oral presentations. Amy will be presenting on the various community engagement projects that Wilderlab is involved with, Meg will be talking about the development of a comprehensive metabarcoding assay panel focusing on Aoteraoa’s unique freshwater flora and fauna, I will be presenting on the passive sampler development and trial results, and Shaun will be introducing our new TICI index: a taxon-independent community index for riverine ecological assessments. 

There are lots of other interesting talks to look forward to as well, so if you are interested in attending either in person or virtually, check out the conference website at http://www.ednaconference.com.au/. Early bird registrations close 28 Jan 2022.

What else is happening in eDNA?

eDNA is an exciting and rapidly expanding field of science. New innovations in sampling methods, lab workflows and data analytics are continuously being reported, so much so, that it can be hard to keep up with the latest! To keep our clients and the eDNA community updated on the latest developments, we are writing up a detailed status update on our current projects, research goals and opportunities to get involved. This report will provide a key overview of what we have been working on over the past year, where we’re at in terms of eDNA capabilities, and exciting new projects we’ll be working on in 2022. Keep an eye on our website or get in touch if you’d like to receive a copy of the 2021 report once it is available.