ArticleMolecular ecology2020
Environmental DNA: What's behind the term? Clarifying the terminology and recommendations for its future use in biomonitoring.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Integrated Reanalysis of Global Riverine Fish eDNA Datasets Shows Robustness and Congruence of Biodiversity Conclusions.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analysis shows both congruence and complementarity of DNA and eDNA metabarcoding to traditional methods for biological community assessment.Molecular ecology · 2022Pooled it
- Biomonitoring 3.0: Beyond Taxa Lists to Evidence-Tiered Monitoring of Ecosystem Dynamics and Interactions.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Prospects of multipurpose biomonitoring for fisheries assessment based on environmental nucleic acids.Journal of fish biology · 2026Review
- The potential of methylation signal detection in eDNA toward functional ecological monitoring.Communications biology · 2026Review
- Development and field evaluation of a multiplex qPCR assay for environmental DNA detection of Schistosoma mekongi and its intermediate snail host Neotricula aperta in the Mekong River Basin.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2026Article
- Unravelling Evolutionary and Ecological Insights of Foraminifera by Using Next Generation Sequencing: A Review.Biochemical genetics · 2026Review
- Disentangled Assembly Graphs Reveal Hidden Eukaryotic Diversity in eDNA Metagenomic Data.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Geographic Patterns of Intra- and Interspecific Diversity of Riverine Fish Species in the Italian Northern Apennines and Ligurian Alps.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Comparative Multi-Marker Environmental DNA Metabarcoding of Marine Metazoan Communities: Water vs. Sediment.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Developing and Evaluating Aquatic Passive Sampling of Environmental DNA for Microbial Community Profiling.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Unveiling Protist Composition and Diversity Patterns With eDNA Metabarcoding: Comparing Short- and Long-Read Approaches.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- The Interplay Between Neuromodulation and Stem Cell Therapy for Sensory-Motor Neuroplasticity After Spinal Cord Injury: A Perspective View.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond Exponential Decay: How Biphasic and Delayed Decay Dynamics Shape Marine eDNA Dispersal.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Environmental DNA as a tool for hydropower impact assessments: current status, special considerations, and future integration.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Spider Webs, Soil or Leaf Swabs to Detect Environmental DNA From Terrestrial Vertebrates: What Is the Best Substrate?Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Urbanisation Drives the Decoupling, Simplification, and Homogenization of Aquatic and Terrestrial Food Webs.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Changes in Microbial Community Assemblages Due To Urban Pollution, Detected via rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequencing in the Magdalena River, Mexico City.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The last decade brought a spectacular development of so-called environmental (e)DNA studies. In general, "environmental DNA" is defined as DNA isolated from environmental samples, in contrast to genomic DNA that is extracted directly from specimens. However, the variety of different sources of eDNA and the range of taxonomic groups that are targeted by eDNA studies is large, which has led to some discussion about the breadth of the eDNA concept. In particular, there is a recent trend to restrict the use of the term "eDNA" to the DNA of macro-organisms, which are not physically present in environmental samples. In this paper, we argue that such a distinction may not be ideal, because the eDNA signal can come from organisms across the whole tree of life. Consequently, we advocate that the term "eDNA" should be used in its generic sense, as originally defined, encompassing the DNA of all organisms present in environmental samples, including microbial, meiofaunal and macrobial taxa. We first suggest specifying the environmental origin of the DNA sample, such as water eDNA, sediment eDNA or soil eDNA. A second specification would then define the taxonomic group targeted through polymerase chain reaction amplification, such as fish eDNA, invertebrate eDNA and bacterial eDNA. This terminology does also not require assumptions about the specific state of the DNA sampled (intracellular or extracellular). We hope that such terminology will help better define the scope of eDNA studies, especially for environmental managers, who use them as reference in routine biomonitoring and bioassessment.
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