Evaluating restoration trajectories using DNA metabarcoding of
ground-dwelling and airborne invertebrates and associated plant
communities
- Mieke van der Heyde,
- Michael Bunce,
- Kingsley Dixon,
- Kristen Fernandes,
- Jonathan Majer,
- Grant Wardell-Johnson,
- Nicole White,
- Paul Nevill
Abstract
Invertebrates are important for restoration processes as they are key
drivers of many landscape-scale ecosystem functions, including
pollination, nutrient cycling and soil formation. However, invertebrates
are often overlooked in restoration monitoring because they are highly
diverse, poorly described, and time-consuming to survey, and require
increasingly scarce taxonomic expertise to enable identification. DNA
metabarcoding is a relatively new tool for rapid survey that is able to
address some of these concerns, and provide information about the taxa
with which invertebrates are interacting via food webs and habitat. Here
we evaluate how invertebrate communities may be used to determine
ecosystem trajectories during restoration. We collected ground-dwelling
and airborne invertebrates across chronosequences of mine-site
restoration in three ecologically disparate locations in Western
Australia and identified invertebrate and plant communities using DNA
metabarcoding. Ground-dwelling invertebrates showed the clearest
restoration signals, with communities becoming more similar to reference
communities over time. These patterns were weaker in airborne
invertebrates, which have higher dispersal abilities and therefore less
local fidelity to environmental conditions. Although we detected
directional changes in community composition indicative of invertebrate
recovery, patterns observed were inconsistent between study locations.
The inclusion of plant assays allowed identification of plant species,
as well as potential food sources and habitat. We demonstrate that DNA
metabarcoding of invertebrate communities can be used to evaluate
restoration trajectories. Testing and incorporating new monitoring
techniques such as DNA metabarcoding is critical to improving
restoration outcomes.15 Sep 2021Submitted to Molecular Ecology 15 Sep 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
28 Oct 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
05 Nov 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
05 Dec 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
05 Dec 20211st Revision Received
06 Dec 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
19 Jan 2022Editorial Decision: Accept
Apr 2022Published in Molecular Ecology volume 31 issue 7 on pages 2172-2188. 10.1111/mec.16375