Grace Foltz ’23 and Matthew Rock ’23
Alternative Technologies for Assessing Marine Populations Using Environmental DNA
Grace Foltz ’23, Biology and Women and Gender Studies major
Matthew Rock ’23, Environmental Biology major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Markert, Biology
Estimating fish populations can be very challenging and labor intensive as fish are typically captured in nets and individually identified and counted. Recent advances in quantitative PCR and Next Generation Sequencing methods have made it possible to recover fish DNA from water samples. If levels of this environmental DNA (eDNA) are proportional to the number of fish living at a habitat, this presents an opportunity to rapidly and inexpensively assess fish populations. Here we present data on eDNA levels at various sites within Narragansett Bay and compare those levels to fish counts from traditional surveys.
Poster Presentation: Tuesday, April 25, 2 – 4 p.m.
