Prioritizing taxa for genetic reference database development to advance inland water conservation. (April 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Monchamp, Marie-Eve; Taranu, Zofia E.; Garner, Rebecca E.; Rehill, Tessa; Morissette, Olivier; Iversen, Lars L.; Fugère, Vincent; Littlefair, Joanne E.; da Costa, Naíla Barbosa; Desforges, Jessica E.; Sánchez Schacht, Joe R.; Derry, Alison M.; Cooke, Steven J.; Barrett, Rowan D.H.; Walsh, David A.; Ragoussis, Jiannis; Albert, Monique; Cristescu, Melania E.; Gregory-Eaves, Irene
• Is Part Of: Biological conservation. Volume 280(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-04
• Subjects: Biodiversity -- Freshwater -- DNA barcodes -- Genetic diversity -- IUCN red list -- COSEWIC -- Genome database; Conservation of natural resources -- Periodicals; Nature conservation -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Periodicals; Environment -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 333.9516
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109963
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0006-3207

Abstract

Abstract: Biodiversity loss has accelerated over the past century and freshwater species overall are among those experiencing greatest declines. Genetic resources have the potential to help evaluate the full magnitude of this loss and represent a key tool to effectively allocate conservation resources and monitor the success of restoration efforts. The full power of genetic resources will be realized when the daunting task of referencing all DNA sequences of freshwater organisms is complete. Here, we quantified the availability and distribution of barcode and genome data for freshwater macroscopic organisms in Canada, a country rich in inland water resources and thus particularly vulnerable to aquatic species losses. Impressively, most inland water species (86 %) were represented by barcodes recorded in the BOLD Systems database, while very few had full genomes available (<4 %) in the NCBI database. We identified barcode data deficiencies in northern regions and for taxa assessed as most at risk or without sufficient information for conservation status classification. As expected, the speciose insect group had a lower-than-average number of records per species and a high proportion of data deficient species without adequate barcode coverage. This study highlights where future sequencing resources should be prioritized within initiatives such as the Canada BioGenome Project and BIOSCAN Canada and provides a workflow that could be applied internationally to inform conservation management plans and to mitigate biodiversity loss. Highlights: Paucity of monitoring data limits conservation status assessment of freshwater taxa. We compiled barcodes and genomes for Canadian inland water-reliant macroorganisms. 86 % of species had barcodes, however data deficiencies spanned all domains of life. Insects and species at risk have been under-sampled, especially in Northern regions. We provide a list of taxa to prioritize future sequencing efforts on.