2025/08/13 by Rhema Uche‐Dike, Ethan Tolman, Christian Benischek +23 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Environmental Science · #Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies #Species Distribution and Climate Change #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/icad.70006
Abstract The study of insect decline remains a major and increasingly urgent frontier in insect biodiversity and conservation. Despite increased attention to fluctuating insect decline trends, relatively little data have been compiled about aquatic insect species, particularly in urban ecosystems. Here, we combine environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding and community science observations to monitor Odonata communities across an urban system in southwest Idaho, USA. We show that the distribution of Odonata communities across this urban landscape is not uniform, and that both monitoring methods have distinct strengths and limitations. Environmental DNA metabarcoding was sensitive to the detection of genera from underrepresented families in the region but was less effective at distinguishing closely related genera, particularly in sites where DNA degradation may have occurred. Community science observations effectively detected genera from more species‐rich families but failed to capture relatively rare taxa or those with short flight periods. These findings highlight the complementary strengths of both methods: eDNA excels at detecting elusive or rare taxa in targeted sampling windows, while community science provides broader temporal coverage and finer taxonomic resolution. Integrating both methods offers a more robust approach to monitoring and managing urban biodiversity. In cases where only one method is employed, care should be taken to account for its inherent detection biases.