Fish and coral assemblages of a highly isolated oceanic island: The first e DNA survey of the Ogasawara Islands

A pioneering environmental DNA (eDNA) survey of the Ogasawara Islands, a remote Pacific archipelago renowned for its unique marine biodiversity, has uncovered a rich diversity of 124 fish taxa and 38 scleractinian coral species. This study marks the first application of eDNA metabarcoding to assess marine reef ecosystems in this region, demonstrating its efficiency in rapidly capturing multi-taxa data from seawater samples without requiring on-site taxonomic expertise. The findings underscore the Ogasawara Islands' significance as a biodiversity hotspot and highlight the potential of eDNA for large-scale biomonitoring, offering insights into species distributions, invasive species, and conservation priorities in oceanic archipelagos.

Açıkbaş, A. H. O., Narisoko, H., Huerlimann, R., Nishitsuji, K., Satoh, N., Reimer, J. D., & Ravasi, T. (2024). Fish and coral assemblages of a highly isolated oceanic island: The first eDNA survey of the Ogasawara Islands. Environmental DNA, 6(1). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.509