Environmental DNA metabarcoding to monitor tropical reef fishes in Providencia island

Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a revolutionary method to monitor species in marine ecosystems from animal DNA present in the water. Examining the capacity of eDNA to provide accurate biodiversity measures in species-rich ecosystems such as coral reefs is a prerequisite for their long-term monitoring. Here, we surveyed a Colombian tropical marine reefs, Providencia Island using eDNA method. We collected a large quantity of surface water (30 L per filter) above the reefs and applied a metabarcoding protocol using three different primer sets targeting the 12S mitochondrial DNA, specific to vertebrates, Actinopterygii and Elasmobranchii. The assignment of eDNA sequences to species using a public reference database allowed detecting the presence of 107 fish species, 106 genera and 73 families in Providencia.