eDNA metabarcoding of log hollow sediments and soils highlights the importance of substrate type, frequency of sampling and animal size, for vertebrate species detection

Fauna monitoring often relies on visual monitoring techniques such as camera trappings, which have biases leading to underestimates of vertebrate species diversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a new source of biodiversity data that may improve biomonitoring; however, eDNA based assessments of species richness remain relatively untested in terrestrial environments. We investigated the suitability of fallen log hollow sediment as a source of vertebrate eDNA, across two sites in south-western Australia - one with a Mediterranean climate and the other semi-arid. We compared two different approaches (camera trapping and eDNA metabarcoding) for monitoring of vertebrate species, and investigated the effect of other factors (frequency of species, timing of visits, frequency of sampling, body size) on vertebrate species detectability. Metabarcoding of hollow sediments resulted in the detection of higher species richness in comparison Hollow sediment detected higher species richness (...