Coral eDNA Research around the Kerama Islands

Coral reefs have the highest biodiversity of any ecosystems in tropical and subtropical oceans. However, scleractinian corals, keystone organisms of reef productivity are facing a crisis due to climate change and anthropogenic activities. A broad survey of reef-building corals is essential for world-wide reef preservation, but conventional direct observation through diving by coral specialists cannot meet this demand. We here carried out an environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding method to survey 19 coral reef sites of Kerama Islands and identified 48 scleractinian genera by sampling 1 L of surface seawater above reefs. This provides basic knowledge for the future conservation of coral reefs at this National Park