Monitoring vertebrate biodiversity of a protected coastal wetland using eDNA metabarcoding

Monitoring plans using environmental DNA have the potential to offer a standardized and cost-efficient method to survey biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. Among these ecosystems, coastal wetlands are key elements that serve as transition zones between marine and freshwater ecosystems and are today the target of many conservation and restoration efforts. In this sense, eDNA monitoring could provide a rapid and efficient tool for studying and generating baseline biodiversity information to guide coastal wetland management programs. Here we test an eDNA metabarcoding assay as a tool to characterize vertebrate biodiversity in one of the largest coastal wetlands of Chile, the Rio Cruces Wetland, a Ramsar designated site since 1981. We sampled surface water from 49 sites along the entire wetland. Our eDNA approach detected 91 genera of vertebrates including amphibians, fishes, mammals, and birds, as well as identified several cryptic, exotic, and endangered species. Our results also indicate...