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Michael K Young

The Colorado River cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus) was once distributed throughout the colder waters of the Colorado River basin above the Grand Canyon. About 8 percent of its historical range is occupied by unhybridized or ecologically significant populations. It has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act and is accorded special status by several state and federal agencies. Habitat alteration and nonnative trout invasions led to the extirpation of many populations and impede restoration. Habitat fragmentation exacerbated by climate change is an emerging threat. A strategic, systematic approach to future conservation is likely to be the most successful.
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Abstract: Environmental DNA (eDNA) is DNA that has been released by an organism into its environment, such that the DNA can be found in air, water, or soil. In aquatic systems, eDNA has been shown to provide a sampling approach that is more sensitive for detecting target organisms faster, and less expensively than previous approaches. However, eDNA needs to be sampled in a manner that has been tested and found effective and, because single copies of target DNA are detected reliably, rigorous procedures must be designed to avoid sample contamination. Here we provide the details of a sampling protocol designed for detecting fish. This protocol, or very similar prototypes, has been used to collect data reported in...
The bull trout is an ESA-listed species that relies on cold stream environments across the Northwest and is expected to decline with climate change. Resource managers are charged with maintaining bull trout across their range, but monitoring this species is difficult and many populations have rarely or never been sampled. To reduce this uncertainty (and regulatory gridlock), we propose to coordinate a crowd-sourced field assessment of the distribution of bull trout in the U.S. by using inexpensive, reliable environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling. Samples collected by this multi-partner
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The ease, efficiency, and sensitivity of environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling of species in aquatic environments is leading to an explosion in its use across North America. In this presentation, we describe eDNA sampling technology and share first year field results from the ongoing range-wide, eDNA-based inventory of bull trout in the northwestern U.S. during which ~3,000 sites were sampled by dozens of partner agencies. Those results are already accessible via a dynamic web portal and serving many purposes, including constituting a durable biodiversity archive for answering questions about many species in future years.We are currently in the planning process to sample thousands of additional sites during the summers...
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