Gone with the Wind: Airborne Environmental DNA for Avian Biomonitoring
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3798Keywords:
Avian biodiversity, Airborne environmental DNA (aeDNA), BiomonitoringAbstract
Global avian populations are declining precipitously, and an innovation in biodiversity monitoring – which fuels conservation with statistics and precise diagnoses of problems – is paramount to conserve avian biodiversity and ecosystem services. Traditional bird survey methods such as point counts and call-backs are labor-intensive, expertise-dependent, time-intensive, and subject to imperfect detection despite being informative on abundance and range. This paper aims to evaluate the potential of airborne environmental DNA to become a reliable technique for avian biomonitoring. A critical review of the literature revealed the scalability, accessibility, and non-invasive nature of airborne environmental DNA. This paper further discusses the method’s sensitivity and spatial reach, as well as how researchers can overcome the challenge of quantifying abundance by accounting for PCR amplification bias, environmental stochasticity, and shedding variability. The paper presents a set of next steps for the field of aeDNA, including protocol standardization, citizen science engagement, and creating shedding-rate and detection probability databases to develop aeDNA into a key biomonitoring tool of the future, working in tandem with traditional methods. Airborne environmental DNA has the potential to overcome current limitations and mature into a comprehensive avian biomonitoring technique, providing policymakers and researchers with reliable data to monitor species and ecosystems, guiding avian conservation.
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