ArticleMolecular ecology2021
Trade-offs between reducing complex terminology and producing accurate interpretations from environmental DNA: Comment on "Environmental DNA: What's behind the term?" by Pawlowski et al., (2020).
Article in Molecular ecology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- pH-Dependent Degradation of Macrobial Environmental DNA in Water.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Pooled it
- Enhancing Intra-Specific Population Genetic Studies of Bottlenose Dolphins (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- 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
- Disentangled Assembly Graphs Reveal Hidden Eukaryotic Diversity in eDNA Metagenomic Data.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Comparative Multi-Marker Environmental DNA Metabarcoding of Marine Metazoan Communities: Water vs. Sediment.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Unveiling Protist Composition and Diversity Patterns With eDNA Metabarcoding: Comparing Short- and Long-Read Approaches.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Development and Application of a Species-Specific eDNA-Based qPCR Assay for Early Detection of the Invasive AscidianEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Aquatic eDNA outperforms sedimentary eDNA for the detection of estuarine fish communities in subtropical coastal vegetated ecosystems.Journal of fish biology · 2025Article
- A molecular specimen bank for contemporary and future study captures landscape-scale biodiversity baselines before Klamath River dam removal.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Potential Role of Photochemistry in Environmental DNA Degradation.Environmental science & technology letters · 2024Review
- North Atlantic deep-sea benthic biodiversity unveiled through sponge natural sampler DNA.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Vertical and horizontal environmental DNA (eDNA) patterns of fish in a shallow and well-mixed North Sea area.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- eDNA based bycatch assessment in pelagic fish catches.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Environmental DNA: The First Snapshot of the Vertebrate Biodiversity in Three Sicilian Lakes.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Utilizing the state of environmental DNA (eDNA) to incorporate time-scale information into eDNA analysis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Environmental DNA in human and veterinary parasitology - Current applications and future prospects for monitoring and control.Food and waterborne parasitology · 2022Article
- Environmental DNA analysis as an emerging non-destructive method for plant biodiversity monitoring: a review.AoB PLANTS · 2022Review
- The Multiple States of Environmental DNA and What Is Known about Their Persistence in Aquatic Environments.Environmental science & technology · 2022Review
- Fine-scale differences in eukaryotic communities inside and outside salmon aquaculture cages revealed by eDNA metabarcoding.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Capturing marine microbiomes and environmental DNA: A field sampling guide.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
26 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In a recent paper, "Environmental DNA: What's behind the term? Clarifying the terminology and recommendations for its future use in biomonitoring," Pawlowski et al. argue that the term eDNA should be used to refer to the pool of DNA isolated from environmental samples, as opposed to only extra-organismal DNA from macro-organisms. We agree with this view. However, we are concerned that their proposed two-level terminology specifying sampling environment and targeted taxa is overly simplistic and might hinder rather than improve clear communication about environmental DNA and its use in biomonitoring. This terminology is based on categories that are often difficult to assign and uninformative, and it overlooks a fundamental distinction within eDNA: the type of DNA (organismal or extra-organismal) from which ecological interpretations are derived.
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