Abstract
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as one of the most
efficient method to assess aquatic species presence. While the method
could in theory be used to investigate non-aquatic fauna, its
development for inventorying semi-aquatic and terrestrial fauna is still
at its early stages. Here we aimed at investigating the reliability of
aquatic eDNA metabarcoding for inventorying mammals in Neotropical
environments, be they aquatic, semi-aquatic or terrestrial. We collected
aquatic eDNA in 96 sites distributed along three Guianese watersheds and
compared our inventories to expected species distributions and field
observations derived from line transect samples. Species occurrences and
emblematic mammals’ richness patterns were consistent with the expected
distribution of the fauna and our results revealed that aquatic eDNA
metabarcoding brings additional data to line transect samples for
diurnal non-aquatic (terrestrial and arboreal) species. eDNA also
provided data on species not detectable in line transect surveys such as
semi-aquatic, aquatic and nocturnal terrestrial and arboreal species.
While wise application of the eDNA method to inventory mammals still
needs some developments to optimize sampling efficiency, it can now be
used as a complement to traditional surveys.