New Publication: Linking eDNA approaches to Marine Protected Area management

Recent Governance of Sustainability (Leiden University) MSc graduate student (supervised by Dr. Kat Stewart), Ginevra Capurso, published her work in Marine Policy!

Currently, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) remain a cornerstone to marine conservation efforts globally and in the EU specifically, yet their efficacy in meeting both biodiversity and policy needs are still limited by conventional surveys used to monitor. These methods are potentially invasive, time-consuming, and often unable to monitor broadscale habitats required for proper management, meet EU policy, and produce long-term datasets enabling the tracking of environmental states through time. Environmental DNA (eDNA) methods may serve as a more effective monitoring tool, but their use in monitoring marine habitats remains relatively unexplored. The current study addresses this gap by examining the potential for eDNA to enhance monitoring within Mediterranean MPAs, where monitoring challenges are especially severe. For this, we conducted a systematic literature review examining existing applications of eDNA metabarcoding to monitor marine habitats, a SWOT analysis to assess the tool’s appropriateness for EU monitoring requirements, and then we probed the tool’s suitability for Mediterranean MPAs with a questionnaire on monitoring and other challenges completed by the managers of 29 MPAs in the region. What we found was that eDNA frequently outperformed conventional monitoring methods or acted as a crucial supplement in marine environments, and importantly, eDNA was suitable for most criteria set forth in EU requirements under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Our research highlights that eDNA approaches may alleviate the monitoring strategy limitations pointed out by MPA managers in the Mediterranean and thus support the role of MPAs in safeguarding vulnerable marine environments.

Want to know more? Check out the publication here!

Capurso G, Carroll B, Stewart KA. 2023. Transforming marin monitoring: using eDNA metabarcoding to improve the monitoring of the Mediterranean Marine Protected Area network. Marine Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105807