Air quality monitoring stations could collect environmental DNA

Environmental DNA (eDNA) accidentally collected by air-pollution tracking networks could provide scientists with information on biodiversity, potentially including from the past.

Air quality monitoring stations around the world have been used by researchers looking to understand changes in biodiversity. eDNA is genetic material produced by living things which shows up in small quantities in the environment, in this case sampled from air. This information can help scientists to track and monitor biodiversity.

'The potential of this cannot be overstated. It could be an absolute gamechanger for tracking and monitoring biodiversity,' said Dr Joanne Littlefair, of Queen Mary University of London, and first author of the paper published in Current Biology. 'Almost every country has some kind of air pollution monitoring system or network, either government owned or private, and in many cases both. This could solve a global problem of how to measure biodiversity at a massive scale'.

Although there has been a 69 percent decline in wildlife populations since 1970, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report, methods to monitor biodiversity levels have remained limited. Difficulty with tracking changes in biodiversity on large scales revolves around the techniques used. These typically involve research intensive methods such as camera surveillance and in-person observations in the field.

The study was a collaboration between teams at Queen Mary University of London, York University, Toronto, Canada and the UK's National Physical Laboratory. By using filters from air quality stations in London and Scotland, they identified eDNA from over 180 different plants, fungi and animals.

Authors highlighted that many jurisdictions retain air quality samples, and some have done so for decades. This potentially opens up the opportunity for researchers to determine the degree to which biodiversity has changed, using eDNA sampling, they suggested.

Dr Andrew Brown, of the UK's National Physical Laboratory, one of the authors, said 'To find out this extremely well-established network can be used by an entirely different field of science – and that it has all this hidden potential that we never thought about – is extremely exciting'.

A paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution last month, demonstrated that human DNA can be salvaged from eDNA sampling, known as human genetic bycatch. Authors voiced concerns about the lack of ethical guidance with these samples, particularly relating to consent, privacy, and data ownership.