Abstract
Information on alpha (local), beta (between habitats), and gamma (regional) diversity is fundamental to understanding biodiversity as well as the function and stability of community dynamics. The methods like environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding are currently considered useful to investigate biodiversity.
We compared the performance of eDNA metabarcoding with visual and capture surveys in estimating alpha/gamma diversity and the variation of the community assemblages of river fish communities, particularly considering community nestedness and turnover.
In five rivers across west Japan, with comparing to visual/capture surveys, eDNA metabarcoding detected more species in the study sites, consequently the overall number of species in the region (i.e., gamma diversity) was higher. In particular, the species found by visual/capture surveys were encompassed by those by eDNA metabarcoding.
With analyzing the community assemblages between the rivers, we showed the different results between the both methods. While, in the same river, the nestedness and species turnover changing from upstream to downstream did not significantly differ between the both methods. Our results suggest that eDNA metabarcoding may be suitable method, especially for understanding regional community patterns, for fish monitoring in rivers.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
The revision updated to add statistical analyses and the revisions of the contents