My project is focused on revealing fish and benthic invertebrate diversity by applying eDNA metabarcoding on water and sediment samples. This will assess taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity, as well as how well habitat distribution of fish and invertebrate species is represented by eDNA within a coastal area of Central Peru. eDNA metabarcoding results will be compared to those obtained from traditional survey methods for biodiversity monitoring and assessment previously established at the study site.
Being awarded with this microgrant will help me develop better data analysis skills, especially modelling species’ relative abundance using abundance estimates obtained by traditional survey methods, while taking into account the effect of different environmental variables.
Water sampling for eDNA metabarcoding at Central Coast, Peru