A new technology being developed at Washington State University could help save amphibians around the world from deadly pathogens like Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a particularly nasty type of fungus that attacks the skin of frogs and salamanders. The new tool, know as environmental DNA, or eDNA, detects telltale bits of genetic material that living creatures […]
Caren Goldberg, an ecologist at Washington State University, is knee-deep in the cutting-edge field of environmental DNA, or eDNA. This modern approach to surveying species in freshwater environments takes advantage of the fact that animals leave DNA—from sloughed off skin, feces, or urine—behind in the water. Researchers simply take water samples and then analyze them for […]
New technology at Washington State University could help save the world’s largest species of freshwater turtle from extinction.
Imagine how cool it would be to detect rare or invasive species, study biodiversity or to estimate fish abundance with just a scoop of air or a dip of water. It’d be like science fiction come true. Well, science fiction is indeed becoming reality through a new sampling technology called environmental DNA. Environmental DNA can […]