Improving herpetological surveys in eastern North America using the environmental DNA method

This study developed a pool of multi-species primers to detect North American amphibian and reptile species by eDNA metabarcoding analysis. Amphibians and reptiles are among the most endangered aquatic species groups. Detection of eDNA is a promising method to significantly increase large-scale herpetological conservation efforts. However, the integration of eDNA results within a management framework requires an evaluation of the efficiency of the method in large natural environments and the calibration of eDNA surveys with the quantitative monitoring tools currently used by conservation biologists. This study empirically support the effectiveness of eDNA metabarcoding to trace the herpetological distributions.