ORCID Profile
0000-0002-1658-9927
Current Organisation
Curtin University School of Science
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-08-2018
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12868
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-05-2022
DOI: 10.1002/EDN3.306
Abstract: Fauna monitoring often relies on visual monitoring techniques such as camera trapping, which have biases leading to underestimates of vertebrate species ersity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as a new source of bio ersity data that may improve biomonitoring however, eDNA‐based assessments of species richness remain relatively untested in terrestrial environments. We investigated the suitability of fallen log hollow sediment as a source of vertebrate eDNA, across two sites in southwestern Australia—one with a Mediterranean climate and the other semi‐arid. We compared two different approaches (camera trapping and eDNA metabarcoding) for monitoring of vertebrate species, and investigated the effect of other factors (frequency of species, timing of visits, frequency of s ling, and body size) on vertebrate species detectability. Metabarcoding of hollow sediments resulted in the detection of higher species richness in comparison (29 taxa: six birds, three reptiles, and 20 mammals) to metabarcoding of soil at the entrance of the hollow (13 taxa: three birds, two reptiles, and eight mammals). We detected 31 taxa in total with eDNA metabarcoding and 47 with camera traps, with 14 taxa detected by both (12 mammals and two birds). By comparing camera trap data with eDNA read abundance, we were able to detect vertebrates through eDNA metabarcoding that had visited the area up to two months prior to s le collection. Larger animals were more likely to be detected, and so were vertebrates that were identified multiple times in the camera traps. These findings demonstrate the importance of substrate selection, frequency of s ling, and animal size, on eDNA‐based monitoring. Future eDNA experimental design should consider all these factors as they affect detection of target taxa.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-07-2022
DOI: 10.1111/REC.13738
Abstract: Salvaged native topsoil is a scarce, highly valuable resource in post‐mining restoration, being the main source of organic matter and nutrients and a major repository of plant propagules and soil microbes. During the mining process, topsoil is often stockpiled, and factors such as stockpile depth, season of stripping, and storage time can adversely affect topsoil functionality. We aimed to determine if soil functionality differs between undisturbed native reference topsoils and stockpiled topsoils of various age and origin, and whether measures of soil microbial community composition, soil respiration, and plant growth provide comparable assessments of soil functionality. We investigated this using select biological assessments of undisturbed native reference topsoils and stockpiled topsoils collected from seven mine sites representing a range of climate, soil, commodity, and vegetation types across the major mining province of Western Australia. Biotic properties of stored topsoil were idiosyncratic and variable across mine sites, and results differed based on the biotic measure being assessed. Biomass was generally lower for plants grown in stockpiled topsoils than for plants grown in native reference topsoils across mine sites. However, no single biotic measure provided an accurate assessment of soil functionality as reflected in plant growth responses. Overall, stockpiling adversely affected soil functionality and further research is needed to improve topsoil management procedures that may be site‐ and biome‐specific.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-06-2019
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12976
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-01-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S00572-016-0759-3
Abstract: Anthropogenic disturbance is one of the most important forces shaping soil ecosystems. While organisms that live in the soil, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, are sensitive to disturbance, their response is not always predictable. Given the range of disturbance types and differences among AM fungi in their growth strategies, the unpredictability of the responses of AM fungi to disturbance is not surprising. We investigated the role of disturbance type (i.e., soil disruption, agriculture, host perturbation, and chemical disturbance) and fungus identity on disturbance response in the AM symbiosis. Using meta-analysis, we found evidence for differential disturbance response among AM fungal species, as well as evidence that particular fungal species are especially susceptible to certain disturbance types, perhaps because of their life history strategies.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-04-2023
Abstract: Stygofauna are aquatic fauna that have evolved to live underground. The impacts of anthropogenic climate change, extraction and pollution on groundwater pose major threats to groundwater health, prompting the need for efficient and reliable means to detect and monitor stygofaunal communities. Conventional survey techniques for these species rely on morphological identification and can be biased, labour‐intensive and often indeterminate to lower taxonomic levels. By contrast, environmental DNA (eDNA)‐based methods have the potential to dramatically improve on existing stygofaunal survey methods in a large range of habitats and for all life stages, reducing the need for the destructive manual collection of often critically endangered species or for specialized taxonomic expertise. We compared eDNA and haul‐net s les collected in 2020 and 2021 from 19 groundwater bores and a cave on Barrow Island, northwest Western Australia, and assessed how s ling factors influenced the quality of eDNA detection of stygofauna. The two detection methods were complementary eDNA metabarcoding was able to detect soft‐bodied taxa and fish often missed by nets, but only detected seven of the nine stygofaunal crustacean orders identified from haul‐net specimens. Our results also indicated that eDNA metabarcoding could detect 54%–100% of stygofauna from shallow‐water s les and 82%–90% from sediment s les. However, there was significant variation in stygofaunal ersity between s le years and s ling types. The findings of this study demonstrate that haul‐net s ling has a tendency to underestimate stygofaunal ersity and that eDNA metabarcoding of groundwater can substantially improve the efficiency of stygofaunal surveys.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2023
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.10014
Abstract: Biomonitoring is vital for establishing baseline data that is needed to identify and quantify ecological change and to inform management and conservation activities. However, biomonitoring and bio ersity assessment in arid environments, which are predicted to cover 56% of the Earth's land surface by 2100, can be prohibitively time consuming, expensive, and logistically challenging due to their often remote and inhospitable nature. S ling of environmental DNA (eDNA) coupled with high‐throughput sequencing is an emerging bio ersity assessment method. Here we explore the application of eDNA metabarcoding and various s ling approaches to estimate vertebrate richness and assemblage at human‐constructed and natural water sources in a semi‐arid region of Western Australia. Three s ling methods: sediment s les, filtering through a membrane with a pump, and membrane sweeping in the water body, were compared using two eDNA metabarcoding assays, 12S‐V5 and 16smam, for 120 eDNA s les collected from four gnammas ( gnamma : Australian Indigenous Noongar language term–granite rock pools) and four cattle troughs in the Great Western Woodlands, Western Australia. We detected higher vertebrate richness in s les from cattle troughs and found differences between assemblages detected in gnammas (more birds and hibians) and cattle troughs (more mammals, including feral taxa). Total vertebrate richness was not different between swept and filtered s les, but all s ling methods yielded different assemblages. Our findings indicate that eDNA surveys in arid lands will benefit from collecting multiple s les at multiple water sources to avoid underestimating vertebrate richness. The high concentration of eDNA in small, isolated water bodies permits the use of sweep s ling that simplifies s le collection, processing, and storage, particularly when assessing vertebrate bio ersity across large spatial scales.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.16375
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 erse, 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.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-11-2020
Abstract: 1. Global interest in building healthy soils combined with new DNA sequencing technologies has led to the generation of a vast amount of soil microbial community (SMC) data. 2. SMC analysis is being adopted widely for monitoring ecological restoration trajectories. However, despite the large and growing quantity of soil microbial data, it remains unclear how these data inform and best guide restoration practice. 3. Here, we examine assumptions around SMC as a tool for guiding ecosystem restoration and evaluate the effectiveness of using species inventories of SMC as a benchmark for restoration success. 4. We investigate other approaches of assessing soil health, and conclude that we can significantly enhance the utility of species inventory data for ecological restoration by complementing it with the use of non‐molecular approaches.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-03-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-2007
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Date: 17-05-2018
DOI: 10.3368/ER.36.2.108
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2022.153223
Abstract: Monitoring of biota is pivotal for the assessment and conservation of ecosystems. Environments worldwide are being continuously and increasingly exposed to multiple adverse impacts, and the accuracy and reliability of the biomonitoring tools that can be employed shape not only the present, but more importantly, the future of entire habitats. The analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data provides a quick, affordable, and reliable molecular approach for bio ersity assessments. However, while extensively employed in aquatic and terrestrial surface environments, eDNA-based studies targeting subterranean ecosystems are still uncommon due to the lack of accessibility and the cryptic nature of these environments and their species. Recent advances in genetic and genomic analyses have established a promising framework for shedding new light on subterranean bio ersity and ecology. To address current knowledge and the future use of eDNA methods in groundwaters and caves, this review explores conceptual and technical aspects of the application and its potential in subterranean systems. We briefly introduce subterranean biota and describe the most used traditional s ling techniques. Next, eDNA characteristics, application, and limitations in the subsurface environment are outlined. Last, we provide suggestions on how to overcome caveats and delineate some of the research avenues that will likely shape this field in the near future. We advocate that eDNA analyses, when carefully conducted and ideally combined with conventional s ling techniques, will substantially increase understanding and enable crucial expansion of subterranean community characterisation. Given the importance of groundwater and cave ecosystems for nature and humans, eDNA can bring to the surface essential insights, such as study of ecosystem assemblages and rare species detection, which are critical for the preservation of life below, as well as above, the ground.
Location: Canada
No related grants have been discovered for Mieke van der Heyde.