Attention colleagues interested in species detection with environmental DNA (eDNA), forensic ecologists and geneticists, microbial ecologists, and others who share our enthusiasm for extraorganismal DNA: I would like to make you aware of an interdisciplinary workshop at the 2016 meeting of the Ecological Society of America on Sunday, August 7th, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Briefly, the motivation of the workshop is:
“Powerful genetic & genomic tools enabled the realization that all organisms shed molecular traces of their presence into their environment. In ecology, use of extraorganismal “environmental DNA” (eDNA) gained prominence for detecting rare species. However, diverse disciplines also use and study extraorganismal DNA, including microbiology, fecal pollution tracking, forensics, hydrology, geology, and environmental biosafety. Despite methodological overlap between disciplines, interdisciplinary discourse has been limited. Thus, practitioners risk overlooking useful data and models, or worse, wasting resources on duplicative research.” In a recent open-access paper (Conservation Genetics 17: 1-17) Dr. Cameron Turner and I introduced the phrase "ecology of eDNA" to encapsulate the origin, state, transport, and fate of extraorganismal DNA-bearing matter. Understanding these properties and processes is critical for the rapidly- growing use of eDNA to infer organism presence/absence in our primary disciplines of ecology & conservation. Building on the relevant research from other disciplines using extraorganismal DNA will undoubtedly benefit these disciplines, but we believe value can also go both ways. We hope you will consider attending and help advertise this workshop to colleagues who may be interested in sharing their experiences and learning from others who study extraorganismal DNA. Cheers, and I hope to see you in Ft. Lauderdale! Dr. Matthew A. Barnes Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University Department of Natural Resources Management Email: matthew[dot]a[dot]barnes[at]ttu[dot]edu | Twitter: @drbarnes | Web: drbarnes.org
